Rodin: 300 Drawings - review

A fascinating look through the work of a tireless creator at the Mus�e Rodin in ParisExhibitions of work by Auguste Rodin, whether they feature drawing or sculpture, all have one thing in common: with so much irresistible art, visitors are torn between fascination and exhaustion. They emerge stunned but convinced that Rodin was a tireless creator, one of those rare artists, such as Picasso, who try everything and manage to overcome all the challenges they set themselves.For this exhibition the Mus�e Rodin has selected 300 drawings from its collection, to give us some idea of what Rodin did on paper, in pencil, ink or water colours, during the last two decades of his life, between 1890 and 1917.It is a lot to see, particularly as the exhibition space is not that large. In a way it is too much, it being quite impossible to look attentively at so many drawings without muddling them up in one's head. So it is not so much a circuit as a dip in a pool. The comparison seems particularly apt as the models are either wearing bathing suits, are stark naked or are draped in clinging veils that leave little to the imagination. The titles are relatively unimportant. Even when you are able to identify a figure from mythology, a Danae or a Psyche, the main thing is that she is in her natural state, holding a pose that enables Rodin to represent the part of her he desires.This may be her genitals, viewed from the front and generally in the centre of the drawing. The model may be lying on her back, leaning forwards or seen from below. She may also be motionless or stroking herself.Rodin was by no means the first artist to adopt this focus, 30 years after Courbet's L'Origine du Monde, but he was one of the first to produce so many studies of the subject. It is surely not a coincidence that Klimt should have been following a similar course in Vienna at the same time, and that Picasso followed suit in the early 1900s.But to reduce Rodin's nudes to a study of genitalia and to the alleged indecency of certain figures is to overlook how the artist worked, which is an essential part of this exhibition. Here are dozens of studies of particular movements, complicated postures, contorted limbs, torsos bent double, improbable balancing acts and other acrobatic attitudes. I often wonder how and for how long these young women managed to hold some particularly difficult poses, resting on the palms of their hands with their legs in the air, or with one leg outstretched and the other arching upward, to rest against a stool.Rodin adopted an encyclopedic approach to the human body, building up as complete as possible an anatomical catalogue. He wanted to study and set down on paper everything the human frame would allow, in a single line or sometimes several, lightly tinted with watercolour or highlighted in deeper blood-red or purple tones. Some of the time this meant tense, detailed representation, at others the approach was more elliptic with just a few curves or an outline, often in pencil.These studies obviously informed his sculpture, but if the exhibition had wanted to demonstrate how that worked, it would have had to add at least 300 plaster casts and bronzes.This article originally appeared in Le Monde ArtParisPhilippe Dagenguardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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