Rodin : the shape of genius /

Unquestionably the 20th century's most significant sculptor, Auguste Rodin has been the subject of numerous biographies since as early as 1903. Many works of criticism about the artist are also heavy on biographical detail and speculation. Any new entry into this crowded field clearly must have something new to offer. Butler (Univ. of Massachusetts, Boston) provides not only new information but also fresh interpretations of the artist's character and personality. Exhibiting an authoritative knowledge of 19th-century France, this biography springs from the extensive correspondence received by Rodin throughout his life. Utilizing many unpublished letters and documents, largely from the archives of the Mus'ee Rodin, the author, a well-established Rodin scholar, achieves a level of intimacy and subtlety missing in other biographies. Begun in 1981, apparently with the author's clear understanding of what was required to produce a significant new biography, this extensive, well-written book is based on careful research and insightful analysis. Organized chronologically between 1860 and 1917, the text is intelligently illustrated with more than 200 black-and-white photographs. This book should enjoy a preeminence among biographies on the artist: it effectively synthesizes previous scholarship and it substantially adds to the understanding of Rodin's personality. Extensive and useful bibliography and chapter notes. A must for libraries with an interest in Rodin or in modern sculpture. J. A. Day; University of South Dakota

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), the sculptor whose Balzac , Victor Hugo and The Thinker were part of a grandiose hymn to male genius, was obsessed with female anatomy and the physical basis of sexuality, as his thousands of erotic female nude drawings make clear. Drawing on archival sources, Butler, art professor at the University of Massachusetts, illuminates Rodin's heroic quest and his relationships with women in this detailed, richly illustrated biographical study. Overwhelmed by grief at the death in 1862 of his older sister, Maria, Rodin, suggests Butler, relived an oedipal attachment to her through his obsessive love for his protege, Camille Claudel. Meanwhile, he treated his common-law wife Marie-Rose Beuret as a ``desexualized mother'' who tended his hearth. Claudel went mad after Rodin reneged on his promise to marry her, but Butler challenges the standard image of Rodin as a male chauvinist, arguing that willful, ambitious Claudel ``tyrannized'' Rodin and imagined herself replacing him as France's preeminent sculptor. Butler portrays a titan hiding anger and lifelong loneliness beneath his immense charm. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

An insightful life of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) that's based on many previously unpublished letters and a fresh interpretation of familiar facts. Butler (Art/UMass at Boston) is especially perceptive about Rodin's relationships--how they inspired, energized, and influenced his art--particularly his relations with the women to whom he claimed he ``owed everything'': his sister, who died when he was 21; his companion of 51 years, Rose Beuret, whom his biographer, Judith Cladel, arranged for him to marry when they were both near death; Camille Claudel, the student whom he reputedly drove mad; wealthy married women who commissioned portraits; and dozens of models who inspired and posed for his thousands of frenetic erotic drawings. Returning to France from Brussels, where he'd began his career, Rodin stopped in Florence, where he encountered the grandeur of Michelangelo and was liberated from the Grecian academic style that prevailed in Paris. This new, more natural, and somewhat vulgar style, as well as the artist's own demanding nature, accounted for his alienation from the centers of power in the artistic community, especially from the Salon system. Nonetheless, in an age of ``statuemania,'' of nationalism and public art, Rodin created major icons: The Kiss, The Thinker, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gate of Hell, the sublime portals based on Dante and cast for a museum that was never built. Butler's special strengths are in analyzing the politics of the artistic community and the art of politics; the expensive and collaborative nature of sculpture (the space, technology, and immense amount of assistance that Rodin required); Rodin's entrepreneurial dimension; his neglect of his illegitimate son; his fame abroad (Rilke wrote his first biography) but his equivocal position in France; and his loneliness. Like Rodin's art: simplified but rounded; monumental. (Two hundred photographs)