The Drawings of Rodin

About this book

August Rodin renowned as a sculptor was also a magnificent draftsman a fact often overlooked today though certainly not in the artists own lifetime. His achievement in the graphic media has been obscured by his reputation as a sculptor and also because his work has inspired an almost unprecedented number of forgeries some even dating from before his death in 1917. THE DRAWINGS OF RODIN an authoritative study by four Rodin specialists re-establishes and confirms the artists skill as a draftsman and clarifies problems of dating and authenticity. J. Kirk T. Varnedoe presents a carefully reasoned chronology of the drawings based on stylistic considerations biographical data and statements by the artist. Two supplementary essays by Victoria Thorson and Elisabeth Chase Geissbuhler throws new light on hitherto neglected aspects of Rodins graphic oeuvre. Mrs. Thorson offers an iconographical study of the later drawings point up some of the complexities of Rodins thought and odes of expression during this period of synthesis. Mrs. Geissbuhler offers the fruit of an ambitious study of hundreds of Rodins architectural sketches and their sources. Albert Elsen pulls all the threads together in an intelligent discussion of the drawings their relations to Rodins sculpture their thematic content their style and their contribution to the history of art. It includes 153 illustrations.