ExhibitionsRodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern

Past Exhibition

Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern

October 21, 2022 – January 15, 2023

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917) is one of the most celebrated sculptors of the modern age, represented in museums and private collections across the globe. However, this was not always the case.

From his first sculpture to enter an American museum in 1893 and culminating with his popular revival in the 1980s, this exhibition follows Rodin’s rise to eminence in the United States due in large part to the collectors, critics, and curators who helped make it happen.

The more than seventy sculptures and drawings in the exhibition include many of Rodin’s best-known compositions, The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, and The Kiss, as well as less-familiar subjects and an exceptional number of his expressive and probing drawings. The exhibition shows Rodin working across an array of media—from terracotta and plaster to bronze and marble—and illuminates his creative process, from studies and maquettes to completed works. Rodin in the United States also reveals Rodin’s incredible daring and inventiveness as he continually pushed against and beyond traditional notions of sculpture.

This exhibition is organized by the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts.

Katherine Seney Simpson (Mrs. John W. Simpson), 1903

Katherine Seney Simpson (Mrs. John W. Simpson), 1903
Marble
National Gallery of Art, Washington, gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson, 1942.5.16Katherine Seney Simpson was one of Rodin’s most important advocates in the United States. Simpson was based in New York but often traveled to France. She posed for this bust more than sixty times. Commissioned in 1902, the portrait marked the beginning of a close friendship.

Katherine Seney Simpson 300dpi 1480x1184.jpg

Arthur Jerome Eddy, 1898

Arthur Jerome Eddy, 1898
Bronze
Art Institute of Chicago, Arthur Jerome Eddy Memorial Collection, 1931.502Philanthropist and art collector Arthur Jerome Eddy commissioned this portrait after seeing Rodin’s sculptures on view at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. This is the first portrait of an American commissioned from Rodin.

1931.502 Head Of Arthur Jerome Eddy O4.jpg

Bust of St. John the Baptist, original model 1880, cast 1883

Bust of St. John the Baptist, original model 1880, cast 1883
Bronze
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of Samuel P. Avery, 1893, 93.11Rodin exhibited an over-life-size figure of St. John the Baptist in plaster at the Paris Salon of 1880. Critics were alarmed at the brazen conviction Rodin gave to the representation of the man who proclaimed the coming of Jesus Christ. This bust was derived from the larger work, and it was the first Rodin sculpture to enter a public museum in the United States. This cast reveals the raw emotion Rodin achieved in his early bronzes, and the patina—the surface coloring—emphasizes the saint’s features.

Study for St. John the Baptist, today known as The Small Walking Man, assembled ca. 1899, cast 1903

Study for St. John the Baptist, today known as The Small Walking Man, assembled ca. 1899, cast 1903
Bronze
National Gallery of Art, Washington, gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson, 1942.5.11To create this figure, Rodin combined elements he found in his studio: a damaged clay torso and a pair of legs that he had modeled two decades earlier in preparation for a life-size sculpture of St. John the Baptist. This was one of the first Rodin sculptures acquired by American collectors, John and Katherine Simpson, and demonstrates how deeply they understood his work. They appreciated partial figures as finished works of art.Rodin later enlarged this figure, which earned the new title The Walking Man when exhibited in 1907. Both versions attest to the popularity of this subject with American collectors and museums.

The Walking Man Lhomme Qui Marche 1942.5.11 O2 1066x1480.jpg

Young Woman Kneeling, original model late nineteenth–early twentieth century

Young Woman Kneeling, original model late nineteenth–early twentieth century
Plaster
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of Auguste Rodin, 1912, 12.12.3

Study of a Hand, original model late nineteenth–early twentieth century

Study of a Hand, original model late nineteenth–early twentieth century
Plaster
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of Auguste Rodin, 1912, 12.12.16

The Hand of God, original model 1895, carved ca. 1907

The Hand of God, original model 1895, carved ca. 1907
Marble
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of Edward D. Adams, 1908, 08.210Rodin began his sculptures by modeling clay or wax or by working directly in plaster to create a three-dimensional work. Assistants then used the clay model to produce a mold, which would then be cast in plaster. Rodin could produce multiples in this inexpensive medium and even cut the plaster apart, recombining hands, legs, torsos, and heads to alter a composition and form a completely new work.In this work, Rodin equates God the creator with the sculptor. God’s hand cradles the partially modeled figures of Adam and Eve, the first human pair in the Hebrew Bible, as they emerge from rough stone. Their entwined forms suggest intimacy and dependence—both on each other and on the hand that made them.Rodin repurposed the right hand of one of the Burghers of Calais for God’s hand and first exhibited a plaster of the new composition in 1896. Marbles and bronzes of different sizes followed. Versions in plaster and bronze are on view within the exhibition, revealing the appeal of this subject to American collectors.

Honoré de Balzac, 1891

Honoré de Balzac, 1891
Terracotta
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1912, 12.11.1This head is perhaps the first study for Rodin’s monument to the novelist Honoré de Balzac (1799–1850). Before receiving the commission, Rodin researched the author by reading his novels and traveling to the province of Touraine, Balzac’s birthplace. In Tours, Rodin found a cart driver, known as Estager, who looked like the long-dead writer. Estager modeled for this work in the fall of 1891.Although Rodin used a different head for the final full-size sculpture, this terracotta was an important initial step. The holes in it are not accidental—they allowed steam to escape while the clay hardened in a kiln.

The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire, and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.

Auguste Rodin

Collection Highlight: Eternal Spring

Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern is organized by the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts. This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
This exhibition is supported by an indemnity from the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities.
This exhibition is made possible by

Major Funding

Funding from Troutman Pepper

Premier Exhibition Series Sponsor

Premier Exhibition Series Supporters

ACT Foundation, Inc.
Sarah and Jim Kennedy
Louise Sams and Jerome Grilhot

Benefactor Exhibition Series Supporters

Robin and Hilton Howell

Ambassador Exhibition Supporters

The Antinori Foundation
Corporate Environments
The Arthur R. and Ruth D. Lautz Charitable Foundation
Elizabeth and Chris Willett

Contributing Exhibition Series Supporters

Farideh and Al Azadi
Sandra and Dan Baldwin
The Ron and Lisa Brill Family Charitable Trust
Mr. and Mrs. Robin E. Delmer
Marcia and John Donnell
Mrs. Peggy Foreman
Helen C. Griffith
Mrs. Fay S. Howell/The Howell Fund
Mr. and Mrs. Baxter Jones
Joel Knox and Joan Marmo
Dr. Joe B. Massey
Margot and Danny McCaul
Wade A. Rakes II and Nicholas Miller
The Fred and Rita Richman Fund
USI Insurance Services
Mrs. Harriet H. Warren

Generous support is also provided by

Alfred and Adele Davis Exhibition Endowment Fund, Anne Cox Chambers Exhibition Fund, Barbara Stewart Exhibition Fund, Dorothy Smith Hopkins Exhibition Endowment Fund, Eleanor McDonald Storza Exhibition Endowment Fund, The Fay and Barrett Howell Exhibition Fund, Forward Arts Foundation Exhibition Endowment Fund, Helen S. Lanier Endowment Fund, John H. and Wilhelmina D. Harland Exhibition Endowment Fund, Katherine Murphy Riley Special Exhibition Endowment Fund, Margaretta Taylor Exhibition Fund, and the RJR Nabisco Exhibition Endowment Fund.