Middle Years

 

The Gates of Hell, 1880-c. 1900

Monumental Projects and Growing Notoriety 1880-1900 Despite the criticism and controversy of the early part of his career, Rodin was commissioned by the French Ministry of Fine Arts to design his first large-scale public project in 1880. The proposition was to create an entrance portal for a museum of decorative arts to be built in Paris. Rodin's main source of inspiration for the doorway, soon to be called The Gates of Hell, was The Divine Comedy by twelfth-century epic poet Dante Aligheri. The Inferno, one of the three parts of The Divine Comedy, was a common reference in French art and literature during this time. An avid reader of Dante, Rodin borrowed imagery directly from The Inferno in addition to creating his own unique visual representations. He wanted to emulate Dante's journey through the underworld as a three-dimensional single piece that would incorporate many characters and scenes. He also drew inspiration from Charles Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil), a controversial book of verse from 1857. Several of his most famous independent sculptures, such as The Thinker, The Kiss and The Three Shades, were derived from smaller reliefs contained within The Gates of Hell. Beginning in the 1880's, Rodin exhibited many of these figures independently as freestanding sculptures. By the end of the 1880's it was clear that the museum of decorative arts would never be built, but Rodin continued to work on the project periodically for the duration of his life.

 

During the 1880s, while working on The Gates, Rodin was gaining notoriety. His work became more and more sought after, especially among fashionable society people. He modeled many portrait busts, often not as paid commissions but as gestures of thanks or friendship. As his reputation grew so did the activity in his studio. Rodin had several people assisting him, each having their own particular job. There were assistants who created plaster casts of the original clay models, a "pointer" who would ready marble blocks to be carved, a bronze caster, and a patinater who finished the outer surface of the completed bronze sculpture. It was also during this period that Rodin met nineteen-year-old Camille Claudel while filling in for his friend who taught a sculpture class to a group of young women. Rodin soon became captivated by Camille, who had noticeable talent and an intense desire to succeed as a sculptor. While Rodin always retained his feelings for Rose Beuret, he and Camille shared more similar interests and passions. Before long she became his student, model, collaborator, and mistress. The two held a great admiration for each other that was notably evident in both of their works. Rodin created many sculptures with Camille serving as his inspiration. He made many portraits of her, in addition to creating numerous sculptures of loving couples in passionate embraces, such as one of his most famous works, The Kiss. Although they were very much in love, Rodin refused to leave his long-time companion Rose Beuret and he and Camille severed their ties by 1898.

The Kiss, c. 1881-82

 

In 1884 Rodin took on another monumental project, this time for the city of Calais, France. The mayor of Calais commissioned a monument to be erected in honor of a local hero, Eustache de Saint-Pierre. This hero was part of a dramatic event that occurred in 1347, during the Hundred Years War. Six leading citizens of Calais volunteered themselves as hostages to the English King Edward III in exchange for his lifting an eleven-month siege on their city. Eustache de Saint-Pierre was the first of six burghers to surrender. The king ordered them to relinquish the keys to the city and to prepare themselves for execution. The brave citizens walked towards the king's camp, thinking that they were taking their last steps, but in the end their lives were spared. Rodin was greatly moved by the power of the story and offered to depict all six men for a modest sum. He began by studying the history surrounding the event as well as other artistic depictions of the burghers. He decided to show all six men taking their first steps toward the camp of Edward III. Rodin's originality won him the commission for the monument and by 1885 he was completing a second maquette for the final approval of the Municipal Council. Two years before its completion, the commissioners of the monument disbanded. Rodin, however, finished the Burghers of Calais in 1888 and exhibited it to the public in 1889 at a joint exhibition in Paris with Impressionist painter Claude Monet. The monument was not erected in Calais until 1895 and even then it was not placed to Rodin's specifications.

Balzac in Dominican Robe, 1891-92

In the late 1880's Rodin continued to receive commissions for public monuments including a monument to painter Claude Lorrain and another monument to French novelist Victor Hugo. In 1891 Rodin received a commission by the Société des Gens de Lettres (the Society of Men of Letters) to create a monument to their founder, French writer Honoré de Balzac. Since Balzac had been dead for forty years, Rodin faced the challenge of having to render his likeness from photographs. He researched the writer extensively, going so far as to order a suit from Balzac's tailor to visualize his size and girth. Rodin worked on the Monument to Balzac for seven years. He completed at least fifty studies, some based on Balzac's actual appearance and others more subjective and abstract. Most of the studies were of Balzac's head, as Rodin felt it more important to emphasize the heads of people of such high intellect. He finished the monument in 1898 and presented the final nine-foot plaster model to the public. It was met with outrage, disbelief, and ridicule, and as a result the literary society refused to accept it. Deeply hurt by the criticism, Rodin removed the sculpture to his studio at Meudon, outside of Paris, and refused to allow it to be cast during his lifetime.