Rodin & Eros

by Bonafoux, Pascal

• ISBN13: 9780500239001
• ISBN10: 0500239002
• Edition: 00
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-04-16
• Publisher: Thames & Hudson

Summary

The theme of the erotic is ever present in the work of August Rodin, both inhis sculptures and in his many drawings. Throughout his career, he depictedsexual desire in all its facets, in every mood from delicate innocence to frankintensity, bearing witness to an endless fascination with the flesh and a love ofthe female form.Taking a chronological path through Rodin's career, this is an intimate approachto the many faces of sex and sensuality in his body of work and in the society withinwhich his art was forged, from mythological portrayals of passion to the context ofcontemporary erotic literature. The topics featured include his relationships withwomen, his friendships with poets and artists, and the controversy that his sculpturescaused in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, when French societywas marked by a hypocritical disparity between public morals and private desires.In a 1916 interview, Rodin spoke out against his critics: "They protest againstthe immorality of my work, they criticize me for loving women…. But they areincapable of understanding what I do." This witty and insightful book, packed withbeautiful images, will shed new light on this intriguing aspect of the artist's worldand his skill at capturing the fleeting nature of pleasure in timeless art.