1851-53
Auguste attends the boarding school of his uncle Alexandre Rodin in
Beauvais. He
is shy and a poor student. Afterwards he remembered:
"I could not see the figures on the blackboard
[...]. I have always been shortsighted. As a child I did not know what was the matter and I hated mathematics because I could not see."
1854-57
At the age of 14, he becomes a student at the former Petite ノcole in the
Quartier Latin, now named the ノcole Imp駻iale Sp馗iale de Dessin et de Math駑atiques; in the class of Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran he permanently
makes drawings e.g. copies after the French
artists of the Eighteenth Century; under his fellow pupils are Jules Dalou and Henri Fantin-Latour.
Once he told his friend Dujardin-Beaumetz:
"When I was very young, as far as I can remember, I made drawings.
A grocer patronized by my mother used to wrap his prunes in paper bags made of pages torn from illustrated books, or even prints. I copied them;
they were my first models."
In spite of his great diligence, neither his teachers nor his fellow pupils certify him virtuosity or special artistic skills.
1857
Charles Baudelaire publishes his collection of poems 'Les Fleurs du Mal';
a court case is instituted because of the sexual offence in his work; he
has to remove six of his poems.
1857
Auguste Rodin fails for the third time at the entrance examination of
the ノcole des Beaux-Arts. For the rest of his life, Rodin will
cultivate an aversion against the sterility and artificiality of
conventional academic art.
1858-62
Selfportrait, 1859Rodin works now as a bricklayer and modeller for several building
contractors, restaurateurs and ornamentalists employed by the architect Haussman
who has the commission to renew the townscape of Paris under Napol駮n
III.
Rodin's later comment:
"In my opinion too, this was certainly inferior work. But I had to learn at this development process that this point of view was incorrect."
1860
He finishes a bust of his father in Neoclassical manner; it is the first surviving sculpture of Rodin.
1862
The sudden and early death of his sister Maria, 25 years old, upsets him so, that he is looking for consolation at the recently founded order of
Les P鑽es du Saint-Sacr駑ent.
1863
Rodin works on his bust of Father Eymard, 1863Rodin models a bust of the founder of the order, Father Eymard, who recognizes
Rodinエs true vocation;
he advises him to leave the order and live for his talent.
He becomes a member of L'Union Centrale des Arts D馗oratifs, to
which Delacroix, Ingres, Lecoq de Boisbaudran, Dumas p駻e and Th駮phile
Gautier belong as well. There, he meets the famous sculptor Jean-Baptiste
Carpeaux.
After works in gothic style in Strasbourg, he returns to Paris.
1863
Manet's painting 'D駛euner sur l'herbe' is
refused by the Salon.
Napol駮n III orders a special exhibition of works refused by the Academy:
The Salon des Refus駸.
1864
Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose, plasterFirst studio in the Rue le Brun, Paris.
He creates a portrait of a man from the neighbourhood, Bibi. According to a
story later propagated by Rodin, the sculptor was too poor to heat his
atelier overnight, so that the clay model froze and the back side of the
head dropped off. 'The Mask of Man with the Broken Nose' is rejected by the Jury of the Salon, presumably because
the astounding realism did not fit the academic aesthetic ideals.
Rodin in his Sunday best, 1864
At the
Mus馥 d践istoire Naturelle he attends Antoine-Louis Barye's courses in animal
anatomy; but there he is more interested in the enthusiasm of his teacher for details than in the studies of
animals. He also attends anatomy classes at the ノcole de M馘icine.
During the next six years he works together with his employer, the
sculptor Albert Carrier-Belleuse.
During his work for the Th饌tre des Gobelins, he meets the pretty seamstress Rose
Beuret; she becomes his model and companion through life. When he is
travelling or working abroad, she looks after his precious clay models and
keeps them wet with damp cloths.
08.12.1864
Camille Rosalie Claudel is born in Villeneuve-sur-F鑽e, as
daughter of Louis-Prosper Claudel and Louise Cerveaux.
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Last update of this page: 08.01.2004
