WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.240 Welcome to the Deep Dive, the place where we 00:00:02.240 --> 00:00:05.019 take complex figures and towering artistic movements 00:00:05.019 --> 00:00:07.200 and give you the essential knowledge you need 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.279 to be an instant expert. Today we are focusing 00:00:10.279 --> 00:00:13.800 on a monumental figure in art history, François 00:00:13.800 --> 00:00:16.519 -Auguste René Rodin. He is the man whose name 00:00:16.519 --> 00:00:19.500 is synonymous with modern sculpture, known globally 00:00:19.500 --> 00:00:22.300 for works like The Thinker and The Kiss. Yeah, 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:23.980 and what's immediately crucial to understand 00:00:23.980 --> 00:00:27.280 about Rodin, who lived from 1840 to 1917, is 00:00:27.280 --> 00:00:29.550 the sheer paradox defining his life. I mean, 00:00:29.609 --> 00:00:32.109 he's universally hailed as the founder of modern 00:00:32.109 --> 00:00:33.750 sculpture, right? Absolutely. Everyone knows 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:37.030 the name. But his entire career path was defined 00:00:37.030 --> 00:00:40.630 by a series of continuous rejections, controversies, 00:00:40.630 --> 00:00:42.890 I mean, even outrageous accusations of cheating. 00:00:43.049 --> 00:00:45.729 He started as this meticulous traditional craftsman, 00:00:45.789 --> 00:00:47.750 really steeped in the technical side of things. 00:00:47.829 --> 00:00:50.409 Okay. Only to emerge as a radical pioneer who 00:00:50.409 --> 00:00:52.329 fundamentally changed how you look at form and 00:00:52.329 --> 00:00:54.850 emotion in art. It's quite the story. Okay, let's 00:00:54.850 --> 00:00:57.590 unpack this for you. Our mission today is to 00:00:57.590 --> 00:01:00.990 trace exactly how this French sculptor, despite 00:01:00.990 --> 00:01:04.329 his, well, pretty traditional schooling, managed 00:01:04.329 --> 00:01:07.129 to execute a complete departure from the staid 00:01:07.129 --> 00:01:10.269 academic expectations of mythology and allegory. 00:01:10.430 --> 00:01:12.590 Right, how did he get away from all that? We're 00:01:12.590 --> 00:01:15.709 going to explore how he embraced radical naturalism, 00:01:15.870 --> 00:01:19.530 modeling the raw, expressive human body, cementing 00:01:19.530 --> 00:01:22.450 his incredible legacy, but... and this is key, 00:01:22.670 --> 00:01:25.730 only after enduring constant painful battles 00:01:25.730 --> 00:01:28.489 with the very sponsors and critics who were supposed 00:01:28.489 --> 00:01:30.469 to support him. Yeah, they really fought him. 00:01:30.590 --> 00:01:32.950 We've compiled material detailing his rough life, 00:01:33.129 --> 00:01:35.670 his revolutionary workshop methods, and maybe 00:01:35.670 --> 00:01:37.950 the true stories behind those iconic works you 00:01:37.950 --> 00:01:40.269 thought you already knew. And to appreciate the 00:01:40.269 --> 00:01:42.790 depth of his revolution, you really have to understand 00:01:42.790 --> 00:01:45.640 the depth of his struggles first. the establishment. 00:01:45.780 --> 00:01:48.400 Yeah. They fought him every single step of the 00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:50.620 way. It wasn't an easy ride. Right. So Rodin 00:01:50.620 --> 00:01:52.560 didn't come from a privileged background that 00:01:52.560 --> 00:01:54.760 granted easy access to the art world. He was 00:01:54.760 --> 00:01:56.719 born into a working class family. You know, his 00:01:56.719 --> 00:01:58.700 father was a police department clerk. Humble 00:01:58.700 --> 00:02:01.239 beginnings. Yeah. He was largely self -educated, 00:02:01.239 --> 00:02:04.019 starting to draw around age 10 and spent his 00:02:04.019 --> 00:02:06.939 adolescence, maybe between 14 and 17, attending 00:02:06.939 --> 00:02:09.699 a specialized art school called the Petit École. 00:02:10.159 --> 00:02:12.939 Ah, yes, the little school. Which focused heavily 00:02:12.939 --> 00:02:15.039 on art and mathematics for students destined 00:02:15.039 --> 00:02:17.680 for craftwork. Now, that sounds like good practical 00:02:17.680 --> 00:02:20.580 training, but how did the academic elite view 00:02:20.580 --> 00:02:23.319 this background? Well, that practical training, 00:02:23.500 --> 00:02:26.580 the very foundation of his later genius, was 00:02:26.580 --> 00:02:29.159 actually held against him. He developed excellent 00:02:29.159 --> 00:02:32.759 technical skills, sure, and a keen eye for 18th 00:02:32.759 --> 00:02:35.879 century decorative art. But this clashed terribly 00:02:35.879 --> 00:02:38.969 with the academic tastes of the day. And here 00:02:38.969 --> 00:02:41.860 is where the setback truly defined him. Rodin 00:02:41.860 --> 00:02:44.580 was denied entrance to the prestigious Ecole 00:02:44.580 --> 00:02:47.120 des Beaux -Arts, the official gatekeeper of French 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:50.080 art, not once, but three separate times. Three 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:52.280 times. That's astounding. If he was already so 00:02:52.280 --> 00:02:55.159 skilled, what was the reason for this repeated 00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:57.639 rejection? Well, frankly, the entrance requirements 00:02:57.639 --> 00:02:59.719 weren't exceptionally high, which makes the rejection 00:02:59.719 --> 00:03:01.939 sting even more. The judges were just dominated 00:03:01.939 --> 00:03:04.919 by neoclassical tastes. They wanted idealization, 00:03:05.199 --> 00:03:08.400 smooth perfection, adherence to classical form. 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:12.439 Rodin's early attempts, rooted in that 18th century 00:03:12.439 --> 00:03:14.979 style from the Petit École, were likely considered 00:03:14.979 --> 00:03:18.060 too rough, maybe too earthy. Not refined enough. 00:03:18.439 --> 00:03:21.599 Exactly. Entirely lacking in the idealized grand 00:03:21.599 --> 00:03:24.800 manner they demanded. This rejection, while probably 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:27.159 crushing at the time, was a bizarre kind of blessing, 00:03:27.259 --> 00:03:29.960 really. It forced him onto a different non -academic 00:03:29.960 --> 00:03:32.560 track. So cut off from the academy, he became, 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:35.659 well, a pure laborer. He spent nearly 20 years. 00:03:36.030 --> 00:03:39.629 from roughly 1857 to 1877, just trying to make 00:03:39.629 --> 00:03:41.979 a living. He had no choice, really. He had to 00:03:41.979 --> 00:03:44.219 function as a craftsman and ornamentor. He created 00:03:44.219 --> 00:03:46.560 decorative objects, worked on architectural embellishments, 00:03:46.639 --> 00:03:49.319 for instance, spending time in Belgium helping 00:03:49.319 --> 00:03:50.819 with the ornamentation of the Brussels Stock 00:03:50.819 --> 00:03:53.639 Exchange. This two -decade period of focused, 00:03:53.759 --> 00:03:56.280 often grueling labor was absolutely indispensable. 00:03:56.639 --> 00:03:58.719 It gave him an essential, comprehensive technical 00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:01.439 mastery of materials, of scaling, of composition, 00:04:01.659 --> 00:04:03.819 skills that, frankly, no academically trained 00:04:03.819 --> 00:04:06.479 sculptor probably possessed to that degree. He 00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:08.699 learned it all from the ground up. Exactly. Clay, 00:04:08.960 --> 00:04:13.069 stone. Bronze. He knew it inside out. But in 00:04:13.069 --> 00:04:15.370 the midst of this struggle, he experienced a 00:04:15.370 --> 00:04:18.250 deeply personal crisis that made him nearly abandon 00:04:18.250 --> 00:04:22.389 art altogether. Yes. In 1862, his older sister, 00:04:22.509 --> 00:04:26.329 Maria, died. Rodin was utterly overcome by guilt, 00:04:26.470 --> 00:04:29.110 believing he was somehow responsible because 00:04:29.110 --> 00:04:31.569 he had introduced her to an unfaithful suitor. 00:04:31.670 --> 00:04:33.850 Oh, wow. He abandoned sculpture completely and 00:04:33.850 --> 00:04:35.990 joined a Catholic order, the Congregation of 00:04:35.990 --> 00:04:38.639 the Blessed Sacrament, as a lay brother. He genuinely 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:41.180 intended to leave the world behind. What saved 00:04:41.180 --> 00:04:42.759 him? What pulled him back from staying in the 00:04:42.759 --> 00:04:45.600 Order? The founder, actually. St. Peter Julian 00:04:45.600 --> 00:04:48.420 Aymard. Aymard was apparently a highly perceptive 00:04:48.420 --> 00:04:50.779 man. He recognized Rodin's profound artistic 00:04:50.779 --> 00:04:53.759 talent and also realized that his emotional temperament, 00:04:53.779 --> 00:04:57.120 his intense creative drive, well, they were wholly 00:04:57.120 --> 00:04:59.399 unsuited for the rigid life of the Order. He 00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:02.519 saw it wasn't the right fit. Not at all. Aymar 00:05:02.519 --> 00:05:05.100 gently but firmly encouraged Rodin to return 00:05:05.100 --> 00:05:07.800 to his art, recognizing that his calling was 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:10.120 in the studio, not the cloister. This intervention 00:05:10.120 --> 00:05:14.040 was just, well, a pivotal turning point. It returned 00:05:14.040 --> 00:05:16.399 one of the world's great sculptors back to his 00:05:16.399 --> 00:05:19.480 destiny. So having honed his craft and overcome 00:05:19.480 --> 00:05:21.879 this personal trauma, Rodin finally saved enough 00:05:21.879 --> 00:05:24.220 money to travel, leading to the next immense 00:05:24.220 --> 00:05:28.420 influence, Italy in 1875. Yes. After about six 00:05:28.420 --> 00:05:31.180 years working outside of France, mainly in Belgium, 00:05:31.339 --> 00:05:33.519 he'd script together enough savings for this 00:05:33.519 --> 00:05:37.100 pivotal journey. He visited Italy and the experience 00:05:37.100 --> 00:05:39.379 just completely transformed his artistic trajectory. 00:05:39.740 --> 00:05:42.300 He was profoundly affected by the works of the 00:05:42.300 --> 00:05:44.899 Renaissance masters, especially Donatello and 00:05:44.899 --> 00:05:47.490 most significantly Michelangelo. What was it 00:05:47.490 --> 00:05:50.009 about Michelangelo's work that resonated so strongly 00:05:50.009 --> 00:05:51.990 with him? He wasn't exactly known for smooth 00:05:51.990 --> 00:05:54.350 perfection either. No, and that was the point. 00:05:54.509 --> 00:05:57.529 Rodin later stated it quite plainly. It is Michelangelo 00:05:57.529 --> 00:05:59.649 who has freed me from academic sculpture. Freed 00:05:59.649 --> 00:06:03.060 him? Yes. Michelangelo's late work. particularly 00:06:03.060 --> 00:06:05.579 the raw, powerful, sort of unfinished quality 00:06:05.579 --> 00:06:08.420 of figures like the slaves, which showed struggle 00:06:08.420 --> 00:06:11.420 and strain rather than effortless grace, that 00:06:11.420 --> 00:06:14.600 spoke directly to Rodin's desire to inject real 00:06:14.600 --> 00:06:17.939 raw emotion into form. It basically validated 00:06:17.939 --> 00:06:21.019 his instinct to reject the static, idealized 00:06:21.019 --> 00:06:23.100 perfection of the neoclassical school he'd been 00:06:23.100 --> 00:06:25.819 bumping up against. And this raw power, this 00:06:25.819 --> 00:06:28.600 new influence, led almost immediately to his 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:31.259 first major public piece, The Age of Bronze, 00:06:31.420 --> 00:06:34.800 in 1877, and his first massive scandal. Right, 00:06:34.839 --> 00:06:37.139 straight into controversy. The work was a life 00:06:37.139 --> 00:06:39.420 -size male figure based on a Belgian soldier, 00:06:39.579 --> 00:06:42.019 actually. Rodin posed him unconventionally with 00:06:42.019 --> 00:06:43.600 his right hand reaching up and resting on his 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:46.300 head, a sort of pensive, almost ambiguous pose. 00:06:46.680 --> 00:06:49.319 And Rodin worked... tirelessly to capture the 00:06:49.319 --> 00:06:51.639 subtle reality of the human form. He studied 00:06:51.639 --> 00:06:53.939 his model intensely, made numerous preparatory 00:06:53.939 --> 00:06:56.560 clay models, and even used candlelight to observe 00:06:56.560 --> 00:06:58.379 how shadows played across the muscle structure. 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:00.699 Really obsessive attention to detail. And this 00:07:00.699 --> 00:07:03.939 mastery of light shadow anatomy, it was so convincing 00:07:03.939 --> 00:07:06.660 that it led to that infamous accusation. The 00:07:06.660 --> 00:07:10.480 accusation of Sir Millage. Casting directly from 00:07:10.480 --> 00:07:12.389 a living model. Which, you have to understand, 00:07:12.550 --> 00:07:15.329 was like a capital offense in 19th century academic 00:07:15.329 --> 00:07:17.769 art. It wasn't just cheating in a minor way. 00:07:17.910 --> 00:07:20.350 No, no. It wasn't just an accusation of taking 00:07:20.350 --> 00:07:22.889 a shortcut. It was an accusation that he lacked 00:07:22.889 --> 00:07:25.269 the fundamental intellectual skill necessary 00:07:25.269 --> 00:07:29.610 to translate the living body into art. Academic 00:07:29.610 --> 00:07:32.250 sculptors believe the artistry lay in the transition, 00:07:32.529 --> 00:07:34.410 the modeling, the intellectual interpretation, 00:07:34.829 --> 00:07:38.089 not mere replication. So that accusation completely 00:07:38.089 --> 00:07:40.970 dismissed his 20 years of intense craftsmanship. 00:07:41.050 --> 00:07:43.509 It must have been infuriating. Absolutely. Rodal 00:07:43.509 --> 00:07:45.790 was furious. He vigorously denied the charges, 00:07:46.029 --> 00:07:48.769 writing letters to newspapers, arranging for 00:07:48.769 --> 00:07:50.689 photographs of the live model to be compared 00:07:50.689 --> 00:07:52.850 with the sculpture, pointing out subtle differences 00:07:52.850 --> 00:07:55.269 in size and posture. Trying to prove it wasn't 00:07:55.269 --> 00:07:58.029 a direct copy. Exactly. The controversy was intense. 00:07:58.129 --> 00:08:00.449 It really polarized the art world. Fortunately, 00:08:00.629 --> 00:08:02.329 the Minister of Public Instruction at the time, 00:08:02.389 --> 00:08:05.009 Edmund Turquette, recognized the work's genuine 00:08:05.009 --> 00:08:08.389 quality. The state purchased it for 2 ,200 francs. 00:08:08.410 --> 00:08:11.269 Which wasn't much, right? No. While it offered 00:08:11.269 --> 00:08:14.189 validation, it only barely covered the cost of 00:08:14.189 --> 00:08:16.970 casting the bronze. But it was something. That 00:08:16.970 --> 00:08:19.490 validation and the purchase proved crucial. But 00:08:19.490 --> 00:08:21.449 Rodin wasn't finished responding to the critics, 00:08:21.550 --> 00:08:23.990 was he? His next work was a kind of technical 00:08:23.990 --> 00:08:27.790 retort. Indeed. He felt he had to prove definitively 00:08:27.790 --> 00:08:30.110 that he was a master sculptor, not just some 00:08:30.110 --> 00:08:33.490 clever caster. That record was St. John the Baptist 00:08:33.490 --> 00:08:37.620 preaching. Completed in 1878. Okay. And to preempt 00:08:37.620 --> 00:08:40.059 any further ceremonialized charges, he deliberately 00:08:40.059 --> 00:08:43.620 made this second male nude explicitly larger 00:08:43.620 --> 00:08:46.159 than life, standing almost six feet, seven inches 00:08:46.159 --> 00:08:48.940 tall. The size alone basically declared this 00:08:48.940 --> 00:08:51.039 could not have been cast from a man. Right. A 00:08:51.039 --> 00:08:53.659 clear statement. But the true technical genius 00:08:53.659 --> 00:08:55.720 seems to lie in the movement of St. John. It's 00:08:55.720 --> 00:08:58.120 a figure that suggests dynamic action while remaining 00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:01.159 firmly planted. How did he do that? Ah, that's 00:09:01.159 --> 00:09:03.720 the real shift toward modernism. Unlike the static 00:09:03.720 --> 00:09:06.080 poses of previous centuries, St. John seems to 00:09:06.080 --> 00:09:08.240 gesture and stride forward. But you're right, 00:09:08.340 --> 00:09:10.299 the feet are both entirely on the ground, yet 00:09:10.299 --> 00:09:12.360 the figure suggests a walk in progress. It's 00:09:12.360 --> 00:09:15.360 contradictory. It is. Rodin used this contradictory 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:18.399 position intentionally, aiming, as he described 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:22.230 it, to display simultaneously. views of an object 00:09:22.230 --> 00:09:24.370 which in fact can be seen only successively. 00:09:24.809 --> 00:09:27.149 It was about capturing the sensation of movement, 00:09:27.269 --> 00:09:30.309 the feeling of it, not just freezing a single 00:09:30.309 --> 00:09:32.830 pose. And the model for this piece wasn't some 00:09:32.830 --> 00:09:35.370 idealized figure from mythology either. No, not 00:09:35.370 --> 00:09:38.250 at all. The initial model was an Italian peasant 00:09:38.250 --> 00:09:40.889 who apparently possessed this idiosyncratic, 00:09:40.889 --> 00:09:43.769 rough, powerful sense of movement. Rodin was 00:09:43.769 --> 00:09:46.370 so compelled by this raw energy that he felt 00:09:46.370 --> 00:09:48.210 he had to capture it. So the form came first. 00:09:48.529 --> 00:09:51.370 Absolutely. The title St. John the Baptist Preaching 00:09:51.370 --> 00:09:53.570 was only applied after the figure was modeled. 00:09:53.830 --> 00:09:56.409 This really emphasizes Rodin's focus shifting 00:09:56.409 --> 00:09:59.750 towards spontaneous, naturalistic movement over 00:09:59.750 --> 00:10:02.269 preordained religious or historical subject matter. 00:10:02.409 --> 00:10:04.590 This was a monumental departure from academic 00:10:04.590 --> 00:10:07.129 rules. So the critical acclaim, however grudging, 00:10:07.210 --> 00:10:09.149 for St. John and the state purchase of the Age 00:10:09.149 --> 00:10:11.450 of Bronze brought Rodin his defining opportunity. 00:10:12.169 --> 00:10:14.590 A massive commission in 1880 that became his 00:10:14.590 --> 00:10:16.769 artistic laboratory, didn't it? The gates of 00:10:16.769 --> 00:10:19.409 hell. It was a defining moment, yes, though deeply 00:10:19.409 --> 00:10:22.289 ironic in the end. Rodin was commissioned to 00:10:22.289 --> 00:10:25.429 create this magnificent bronze portal for a planned 00:10:25.429 --> 00:10:28.710 museum of decorative arts in Paris. Sounds prestigious. 00:10:29.309 --> 00:10:32.110 Hugely. The profound irony, though, is that the 00:10:32.110 --> 00:10:35.029 museum was never actually built. Yet Rodin dedicated 00:10:35.029 --> 00:10:37.169 the bulk of the next four decades of his life 00:10:37.169 --> 00:10:40.289 to this colossal monumental group. Four decades 00:10:40.289 --> 00:10:42.460 on a project for a... building that never existed? 00:10:42.659 --> 00:10:44.940 What was the sheer scale of the work? It was 00:10:44.940 --> 00:10:47.580 staggering. The portal was intended to depict 00:10:47.580 --> 00:10:50.840 scenes from Dante's Inferno in high relief. Over 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:54.100 the years, the piece just evolved and grew, ultimately 00:10:54.100 --> 00:10:57.379 comprising an astonishing 186 figures in its 00:10:57.379 --> 00:11:00.860 final, albeit technically unfinished, form. 186 00:11:00.860 --> 00:11:03.519 figures? Yeah, and Rodin's vision was revolutionary. 00:11:03.840 --> 00:11:06.039 He completely rejected the ordered, balanced 00:11:06.039 --> 00:11:08.320 compositions of tradition. Instead, he created 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:11.779 this visually disordered, chaotic, almost untamed 00:11:11.779 --> 00:11:14.000 depiction of hell. The figures aren't interacting 00:11:14.000 --> 00:11:15.919 in classical groups. They're physically and morally 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:19.000 isolated in their own private torment. So if 00:11:19.000 --> 00:11:21.799 the museum was never built and the piece remained 00:11:21.799 --> 00:11:24.279 technically unfinished, why is it so important 00:11:24.279 --> 00:11:26.360 to his legacy? Why do we talk about it so much? 00:11:26.559 --> 00:11:30.379 Because the gates of hell served as Rodin's ultimate 00:11:30.379 --> 00:11:33.820 artistic incubator. It was like a repository 00:11:33.820 --> 00:11:37.360 of forms, a laboratory where he experimented 00:11:37.360 --> 00:11:39.519 constantly with human emotion, with composition, 00:11:39.700 --> 00:11:43.279 with movement. Many of his most famous self -contained 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:45.899 sculptures that we recognize today. Like The 00:11:45.899 --> 00:11:49.840 Thinker. Exactly. They began life as small, sometimes 00:11:49.840 --> 00:11:52.779 almost overlooked, designs for the gates. They 00:11:52.779 --> 00:11:55.340 are masterpieces that emerge, almost like spinoffs, 00:11:55.379 --> 00:11:58.220 fully formed, the turbulent conceptual framework 00:11:58.220 --> 00:12:00.299 of that great portal. Okay, let's discuss the 00:12:00.299 --> 00:12:02.419 most famous example then, The Thinker. When people 00:12:02.419 --> 00:12:04.679 see it, they usually associate it with deep intellectual 00:12:04.679 --> 00:12:07.399 reflection, right? But what was its humble initial 00:12:07.399 --> 00:12:10.039 role on the gates? Well, it was originally placed 00:12:10.039 --> 00:12:12.139 right on the lintel, that's the horizontal support 00:12:12.139 --> 00:12:14.960 above the doorway, and initially titled The Poet. 00:12:14.980 --> 00:12:18.460 The Poet, not The Thinker. No. It was intended 00:12:18.460 --> 00:12:22.279 to represent Dante himself, gazing down, contemplating 00:12:22.279 --> 00:12:24.659 the damned soul swirling below him in the inferno. 00:12:25.210 --> 00:12:28.669 Over time, though, its meaning broadened. Observers 00:12:28.669 --> 00:12:30.710 have also ascribed the anguish of the biblical 00:12:30.710 --> 00:12:33.429 Adam, maybe the defiance of the mythological 00:12:33.429 --> 00:12:36.330 Prometheus to the figure. So it became more universal. 00:12:36.529 --> 00:12:39.190 It holds this universal appeal because it seems 00:12:39.190 --> 00:12:42.210 to embody multiple forms of existential struggle, 00:12:42.370 --> 00:12:45.149 not just Dante's specific observation. But you 00:12:45.149 --> 00:12:47.230 argue that the power of the thinker is less about 00:12:47.230 --> 00:12:49.370 the brain and more about the body. How does Rodin 00:12:49.370 --> 00:12:51.889 communicate that emotional tension? Right. This 00:12:51.889 --> 00:12:54.620 connects back to Rodin's core belief. The total 00:12:54.620 --> 00:12:57.659 body expresses the mind. He intentionally gave 00:12:57.659 --> 00:13:00.240 the thinker this rough, muscular physicality 00:13:00.240 --> 00:13:02.759 stressing emotional tension over purely abstract, 00:13:03.210 --> 00:13:05.610 Quiet thought. He made thinking look like hard 00:13:05.610 --> 00:13:08.669 work. Exactly. Rodin explicitly confirmed this. 00:13:08.730 --> 00:13:10.610 He said, what makes my thinker think is that 00:13:10.610 --> 00:13:12.750 he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted 00:13:12.750 --> 00:13:15.070 brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, 00:13:15.190 --> 00:13:17.870 but with every muscle of his arms, back and legs, 00:13:18.009 --> 00:13:20.649 with his clenched fist and gripping toes. The 00:13:20.649 --> 00:13:23.809 struggle of thought is physicalized. It's externalized 00:13:23.809 --> 00:13:26.789 in every fiber of his being. And remember, the 00:13:26.789 --> 00:13:28.570 original piece for the Gates was much smaller. 00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:32.580 About 27 .5 inches high in bronze. Not the huge 00:13:32.580 --> 00:13:35.100 monumental versions we often see in museums today. 00:13:35.259 --> 00:13:37.179 It's incredible to think that The Kiss, another 00:13:37.179 --> 00:13:39.960 work known for its, well, almost smooth romantic 00:13:39.960 --> 00:13:42.759 perfection, also derived from the chaotic scenes 00:13:42.759 --> 00:13:45.659 of The Gates. It speaks volumes about the creative 00:13:45.659 --> 00:13:47.440 freedom this commission must have offered him. 00:13:47.539 --> 00:13:50.240 It really does. The commission provided a crucial 00:13:50.240 --> 00:13:53.059 professional boost. Not only a stipend, but also 00:13:53.059 --> 00:13:55.850 a free studio. This finally allowed Rodin to 00:13:55.850 --> 00:13:58.769 leave his steady but maybe restrictive part -time 00:13:58.769 --> 00:14:01.710 design position at the Sèvres National Porcelain 00:14:01.710 --> 00:14:04.149 Factory. So he could dedicate himself fully? 00:14:04.409 --> 00:14:07.110 Yes, fully to a sculpture. This artistic freedom, 00:14:07.210 --> 00:14:10.409 however, well, it deeply complicated his personal 00:14:10.409 --> 00:14:12.629 life around the same time. Right. This new environment 00:14:12.629 --> 00:14:15.549 led directly to his intense and often, well, 00:14:15.590 --> 00:14:17.669 destructive relationship with Camille Claudel. 00:14:17.809 --> 00:14:21.690 Exactly. In 1883, Rodin met Camille Claudel. 00:14:22.009 --> 00:14:24.210 He was supervising a sculpture course for another 00:14:24.210 --> 00:14:26.929 sculptor, Alfred Boucher, and she was a student 00:14:26.929 --> 00:14:30.250 there. He was just 18 and already a supremely 00:14:30.250 --> 00:14:32.929 talented artist in her own right. Just 18? Yeah. 00:14:33.129 --> 00:14:35.629 What followed was a passionate and extremely 00:14:35.629 --> 00:14:38.330 stormy relationship that lasted about 15 years. 00:14:38.590 --> 00:14:40.610 And it wasn't just a relationship between an 00:14:40.610 --> 00:14:42.870 older master and a young model. Sources say she 00:14:42.870 --> 00:14:45.669 was a genuine artistic partner, maybe even a 00:14:45.669 --> 00:14:48.309 rival. Oh, she was far more than just a muse. 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:51.500 Claudel assisted him on numerous large -scale 00:14:51.500 --> 00:14:54.399 commissions, including potentially helping model 00:14:54.399 --> 00:14:57.000 figures for the Gates and the Burgers of Calais. 00:14:57.139 --> 00:14:59.620 So she was in the workshop, hands -on. Definitely. 00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:02.059 Their influence was symbiotic. It went both ways. 00:15:02.799 --> 00:15:05.080 Rodin introduced her to his expressive naturalism, 00:15:05.120 --> 00:15:08.279 sure, but she arguably injected greater classical 00:15:08.279 --> 00:15:10.159 discipline and maybe polished into some of his 00:15:10.159 --> 00:15:12.980 forms. And her own work was acclaimed. Her magnificent 00:15:12.980 --> 00:15:15.519 bust of Rodin, for example, received high praise 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:18.519 at the 1892 Salon. So why did this powerful partnership 00:15:18.519 --> 00:15:20.659 eventually fracture? It sounds like they were 00:15:20.659 --> 00:15:23.460 creatively aligned. It fractured because of the 00:15:23.460 --> 00:15:25.899 immense emotional conflict created by Rodin's 00:15:25.899 --> 00:15:29.039 refusal to fully commit to her. He maintained 00:15:29.039 --> 00:15:32.779 what was essentially a double life. Rodin had 00:15:32.779 --> 00:15:35.720 a lifelong companion, Rose Bure, who was the 00:15:35.720 --> 00:15:38.919 mother of his son, Auguste Eugene. Rose had stood 00:15:38.919 --> 00:15:41.240 by him during all those years of poverty and 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:44.379 rejection. The Hurley Struggles. Exactly. Rodin 00:15:44.379 --> 00:15:47.120 felt an immense loyalty to Rose and refused to 00:15:47.120 --> 00:15:49.500 relinquish those ties for Claudel, even though 00:15:49.500 --> 00:15:51.340 his relationship with Claudel was incredibly 00:15:51.340 --> 00:15:54.179 intense. That refusal must have had a devastating 00:15:54.179 --> 00:15:56.899 impact on Claudel, who is presumably looking 00:15:56.899 --> 00:15:58.899 for full commitment, especially from someone 00:15:58.899 --> 00:16:00.899 like Rodel. It was absolutely crushing for her. 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:03.200 The strain of this conflict, which involved, 00:16:03.340 --> 00:16:05.460 you know, immense jealousy, professional rivalry, 00:16:05.620 --> 00:16:07.659 simmering beneath the surface, and just sheer 00:16:07.659 --> 00:16:10.019 emotional exhaustion eventually became too much. 00:16:10.139 --> 00:16:12.720 The relationship soured completely. and Rodin 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:14.919 and Claudel finally parted ways around 1898. 00:16:15.220 --> 00:16:18.320 A difficult end. A profound personal loss for 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:20.419 both, I think, even though he remained loyal 00:16:20.419 --> 00:16:23.340 to Rose. He wrote to Rose during one absence, 00:16:23.580 --> 00:16:27.600 reflecting on her enduring fidelity. I think 00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:29.419 of how much you must have loved me to put up 00:16:29.419 --> 00:16:32.340 with my caprices. I remain in all tenderness, 00:16:32.580 --> 00:16:35.639 your Rodin. Shows the complexity, doesn't it? 00:16:35.870 --> 00:16:37.730 Rodin may have been finding artistic freedom 00:16:37.730 --> 00:16:40.129 in his studio, working on the gates, but it seems 00:16:40.129 --> 00:16:42.029 every time he brought a major public commission 00:16:42.029 --> 00:16:44.669 into the light, he faced outright hostility. 00:16:45.169 --> 00:16:47.330 Let's look at the incredible battles over the 00:16:47.330 --> 00:16:49.970 Burghers of Calais, commissioned between 1884 00:16:49.970 --> 00:16:53.389 and 1889. Oh yes, the Burghers. This was a monument 00:16:53.389 --> 00:16:55.610 commissioned by the town of Calais to commemorate 00:16:55.610 --> 00:16:57.889 one of the great stories of, well, English and 00:16:57.889 --> 00:17:01.070 French history. Six leading citizens of Calais 00:17:01.070 --> 00:17:03.330 offered their lives to King Edward III to save 00:17:03.330 --> 00:17:05.150 their besieged city during the Hundred Years' 00:17:05.269 --> 00:17:07.789 War. A heroic tale. So the local committee had 00:17:07.789 --> 00:17:10.009 a very clear traditional expectation, I imagine. 00:17:10.250 --> 00:17:12.950 Exactly. They wanted an epic, probably allegorical 00:17:12.950 --> 00:17:15.750 monument celebrating the central hero, Eustache 00:17:15.750 --> 00:17:19.029 de Saint -Pierre, the leader. One guy on a pedestal 00:17:19.029 --> 00:17:22.329 looking noble. Precisely. They expected a single 00:17:22.329 --> 00:17:25.509 traditional heroic figure, probably mounted on 00:17:25.509 --> 00:17:28.950 a tall pedestal, conveying stoic, unified sacrifice. 00:17:29.329 --> 00:17:31.670 Rodin, well, he conceived something entirely 00:17:31.670 --> 00:17:34.049 different. He presented a collective study in 00:17:34.049 --> 00:17:36.470 human struggle and doubt. How so? He deliberately 00:17:36.470 --> 00:17:39.089 ensured that all six men were given equal weight. 00:17:39.170 --> 00:17:42.130 There's no single hero dominating. And he conceived 00:17:42.130 --> 00:17:44.750 the sculpture as a study of the complex, varying 00:17:44.750 --> 00:17:47.410 emotions under which they were laboring. Fear. 00:17:47.819 --> 00:17:51.299 resignation, defiance, profound spiritual isolation. 00:17:51.700 --> 00:17:54.680 Each man is individualized, isolated in his own 00:17:54.680 --> 00:17:56.640 struggle, even while they're standing together. 00:17:57.130 --> 00:17:59.569 That individualization and emotional complacency 00:17:59.569 --> 00:18:01.410 must have been utterly confusing, maybe even 00:18:01.410 --> 00:18:03.990 offensive, to a public expecting straightforward 00:18:03.990 --> 00:18:06.430 heroics. It was confusing and unsettling, yes. 00:18:06.710 --> 00:18:09.809 But the truly revolutionary proposal that angered 00:18:09.809 --> 00:18:11.869 the committee the most concerned, the display 00:18:11.869 --> 00:18:14.930 itself. Rodin didn't just sculpt a radical piece. 00:18:15.150 --> 00:18:17.690 He proposed a radical spatial relationship between 00:18:17.690 --> 00:18:19.789 the art and the viewer. Okay, tell us more about 00:18:19.789 --> 00:18:21.589 that. What did he want them to do with it? He 00:18:21.589 --> 00:18:23.789 wanted the monument's traditional high pedestal 00:18:23.789 --> 00:18:28.200 eliminated entirely. Gone. Rodin argued that 00:18:28.200 --> 00:18:30.299 the work should be placed at ground level, without 00:18:30.299 --> 00:18:32.420 any railing or barrier. So people could walk 00:18:32.420 --> 00:18:34.920 right up to them. Exactly. So that viewers could 00:18:34.920 --> 00:18:37.380 walk directly among the figures, experiencing 00:18:37.380 --> 00:18:40.579 their scale and suffering intimately. He wanted 00:18:40.579 --> 00:18:43.559 the viewer to penetrate to the heart of the subject, 00:18:43.619 --> 00:18:45.890 as he put it. And he designed the positioning 00:18:45.890 --> 00:18:48.930 of the six figures to subtly guide the viewer 00:18:48.930 --> 00:18:52.309 around the group, forcing a full 360 -degree 00:18:52.309 --> 00:18:54.730 confrontation with their plight. He was challenging 00:18:54.730 --> 00:18:56.890 the whole notion that public sculpture must be 00:18:56.890 --> 00:18:59.609 remote, monumental, untouchable, something you 00:18:59.609 --> 00:19:02.230 look up at. Absolutely. He wanted intimacy and 00:19:02.230 --> 00:19:05.589 confrontation, not distance and awe. The Calais 00:19:05.589 --> 00:19:07.730 committee was incensed by this untraditional 00:19:07.730 --> 00:19:10.210 concept. They saw it as a gross lack of respect 00:19:10.210 --> 00:19:11.950 for the heroes, frankly. So they ignored him. 00:19:12.109 --> 00:19:15.680 Completely. In 1895, they overrode him and displayed 00:19:15.680 --> 00:19:18.819 the work on a tall classical platform surrounded 00:19:18.819 --> 00:19:21.839 by a railing precisely what he didn't want. It 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:24.259 completely neutralized Rodin's intended effect. 00:19:24.460 --> 00:19:26.480 That's frustrating. It's a tragic footnote, really, 00:19:26.539 --> 00:19:28.819 that only after the work suffered damage during 00:19:28.819 --> 00:19:32.039 World War I and years after Rodin's death was 00:19:32.039 --> 00:19:34.380 the sculpture finally displayed as he originally 00:19:34.380 --> 00:19:36.380 intended at ground level near the town hall. 00:19:36.779 --> 00:19:39.460 It took decades. If the Burgers' controversy 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:41.720 was challenging, the battle over the monument 00:19:41.720 --> 00:19:44.099 to Balzac seems like it was a complete artistic 00:19:44.099 --> 00:19:47.039 disaster, at least in his lifetime. Oh, the Balzac. 00:19:47.240 --> 00:19:50.640 Yeah. The commission began in 1891. It came from 00:19:50.640 --> 00:19:53.079 the Société des Gens des Lettres, the Society 00:19:53.079 --> 00:19:55.900 of Men of Letters, and was meant to honor the, 00:19:55.980 --> 00:19:59.700 well, famously massive, rotund French novelist 00:19:59.700 --> 00:20:02.410 Honoré de Balzac. Not an easy subject to make 00:20:02.410 --> 00:20:05.470 heroic in the traditional sense. No. Rudas struggled 00:20:05.470 --> 00:20:07.410 immensely with the challenge of representing 00:20:07.410 --> 00:20:10.470 such a complex, physical, and intellectual figure. 00:20:10.829 --> 00:20:13.349 This struggle is really visible in the huge number 00:20:13.349 --> 00:20:15.930 of studies he produced over several years. What 00:20:15.930 --> 00:20:17.630 were some of the different approaches he tried 00:20:17.630 --> 00:20:19.509 in those studies? He didn't just jump to the 00:20:19.509 --> 00:20:21.910 final version. Not at all. He produced dozens 00:20:21.910 --> 00:20:24.609 of small studies in larger figures, figures nude, 00:20:24.809 --> 00:20:27.529 showing Balzac's famously large stomach and rough 00:20:27.529 --> 00:20:31.250 form. Really? Nude studies? Oh, yes. Then figures 00:20:31.250 --> 00:20:33.609 wearing a traditional frock coat and figures 00:20:33.609 --> 00:20:36.789 wrapped in a loose dressing gown or robe, a replica 00:20:36.789 --> 00:20:39.069 of which Rodin had actually requested the society 00:20:39.069 --> 00:20:41.390 send him so he could study the drapery properly. 00:20:41.670 --> 00:20:43.569 He was really wrestling with it. This struggle 00:20:43.569 --> 00:20:45.970 just demonstrated his relentless pursuit of the 00:20:45.970 --> 00:20:48.890 subject's essence, not just his physical likeness. 00:20:48.910 --> 00:20:51.569 What was Balzac, really? And what was the essence 00:20:51.569 --> 00:20:54.710 he finally settled on for the final piece? Well, 00:20:54.769 --> 00:20:57.380 he depicted Balzac cloaked in that drapery. the 00:20:57.380 --> 00:20:59.759 author's robe, which concealed much of the physical 00:20:59.759 --> 00:21:02.220 body but exaggerated the head and the powerful 00:21:02.220 --> 00:21:06.140 stance. The face was deeply gouged, forceful, 00:21:06.220 --> 00:21:09.000 almost monumental, looking intently into the 00:21:09.000 --> 00:21:11.559 distance. What was he trying to capture? Rodin 00:21:11.559 --> 00:21:13.940 intended to capture Balzac not in a static pose, 00:21:14.220 --> 00:21:16.539 but at the very moment of creative conception, 00:21:16.799 --> 00:21:19.640 to express the immense courage, the exhausting 00:21:19.640 --> 00:21:21.740 labor, and the intellectual struggle required 00:21:21.740 --> 00:21:25.180 for genius, the sheer effort of creation. But 00:21:25.180 --> 00:21:27.220 the public and the very society that paid for 00:21:27.220 --> 00:21:30.140 it did not see genius or struggle. They saw, 00:21:30.160 --> 00:21:32.859 well, a punchline, apparently. The reaction when 00:21:32.859 --> 00:21:36.000 the plaster was exhibited in 1898 was overwhelmingly 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:39.960 hostile, just brutal. The society rejected the 00:21:39.960 --> 00:21:42.319 work outright, claiming it simply did not represent 00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:45.359 the novelist. The press ran vicious parodies, 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:48.579 calling it a huge comic mass crowning a bathrobe. 00:21:48.700 --> 00:21:52.710 Ouch. A bathrobe. Yeah. Even critics who were 00:21:52.710 --> 00:21:55.490 generally supportive noted that such an unconventional 00:21:55.490 --> 00:21:58.150 representation struck many viewers as artistic 00:21:58.150 --> 00:22:01.150 slang, almost an insult to the author's memory. 00:22:01.470 --> 00:22:04.190 Imagine the emotional toll this took on him personally 00:22:04.190 --> 00:22:06.549 after putting years of intellectual and creative 00:22:06.549 --> 00:22:09.190 energy into it. Seven years, wasn't it? Seven 00:22:09.190 --> 00:22:11.230 years of struggle. It was a monumental public 00:22:11.230 --> 00:22:13.750 failure, a huge slap in the face from the institution 00:22:13.750 --> 00:22:16.859 that commissioned him. Rodin, in what must have 00:22:16.859 --> 00:22:18.259 been one of the most disheartening moments of 00:22:18.259 --> 00:22:20.819 his career, actually repaid the commission fee. 00:22:20.940 --> 00:22:23.640 He gave the money back? He gave it back and moved 00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:26.059 the colossal plaster figure to his own garden 00:22:26.059 --> 00:22:28.880 at Muton. He was so disillusioned by the whole 00:22:28.880 --> 00:22:31.380 experience that he never completed another public 00:22:31.380 --> 00:22:33.960 commission afterward. That was it for him. But 00:22:33.960 --> 00:22:36.460 what's fascinating here is the complete turnaround 00:22:36.460 --> 00:22:39.779 in critical opinion over time. It wasn't universally 00:22:39.779 --> 00:22:42.380 hated forever. No, absolutely not. The initial 00:22:42.380 --> 00:22:45.180 hostility was extreme. But Rodin had fervent 00:22:45.180 --> 00:22:47.640 supporters from the start, including major figures 00:22:47.640 --> 00:22:50.440 like the painter Claude Monet, the composer Claude 00:22:50.440 --> 00:22:53.099 Debussy, and the powerful politician Georges 00:22:53.099 --> 00:22:55.299 Clemenceau, who signed a manifesto defending 00:22:55.299 --> 00:22:58.299 him and the work. Some people got it. Some people 00:22:58.299 --> 00:23:01.640 got it. And eventually, art history vindicated 00:23:01.640 --> 00:23:04.829 him entirely. The renowned art historian Kenneth 00:23:04.829 --> 00:23:07.769 Clark later praised the Balzac as the greatest 00:23:07.769 --> 00:23:09.950 piece of sculpture of the 19th century, perhaps, 00:23:10.089 --> 00:23:13.250 indeed, the greatest since Michelangelo. I praise 00:23:13.250 --> 00:23:16.809 indeed. Wow. From bathrobe to Michelangelo. Right. 00:23:16.869 --> 00:23:19.640 But it took time. It wasn't even cast in bronze 00:23:19.640 --> 00:23:22.039 and placed on the Boulevard du Montparnasse until 00:23:22.039 --> 00:23:25.740 1939, over 40 years after its rejection, long 00:23:25.740 --> 00:23:28.279 after Rodin was dead. Okay, so this whole litany 00:23:28.279 --> 00:23:30.200 of rejection from the Beaux -Arts right through 00:23:30.200 --> 00:23:32.460 to the Balzac, it leads us to the core question. 00:23:32.660 --> 00:23:35.839 Why was Rodin so disruptive? Why is he, above 00:23:35.839 --> 00:23:38.319 all others, credited with founding modern sculpture? 00:23:38.660 --> 00:23:40.839 What was he actually doing differently? Well, 00:23:40.859 --> 00:23:42.980 it really comes down to a radical shift in aesthetic 00:23:42.980 --> 00:23:46.210 focus. Yeah. Rodin fundamentally rejected the 00:23:46.210 --> 00:23:49.549 idealism of the ancient Greeks and the decorative 00:23:49.549 --> 00:23:51.890 polish of the baroque or neo -baroque movements 00:23:51.890 --> 00:23:53.910 that were still influential. He wasn't aiming 00:23:53.910 --> 00:23:57.230 for pretty. No. He was a naturalist. He was concerned 00:23:57.230 --> 00:24:01.109 not with idealized perfection, but with raw emotional 00:24:01.109 --> 00:24:04.329 character. He prioritized expressing inner life. 00:24:04.670 --> 00:24:07.069 psychological complexity, the stuff going on 00:24:07.069 --> 00:24:10.130 inside. So if the Academy wanted smooth, idealized 00:24:10.130 --> 00:24:13.269 skin, Rodin gave us rough, textured flesh that 00:24:13.269 --> 00:24:15.630 captured the play of light and shadow, the feeling 00:24:15.630 --> 00:24:18.210 of muscle underneath. Exactly. His work emphasized 00:24:18.210 --> 00:24:21.569 the individual and the palpable, tangible concreteness 00:24:21.569 --> 00:24:24.299 of flesh. He used textured, sometimes deliberately 00:24:24.299 --> 00:24:26.779 unfinished surfaces to suggest internal emotion 00:24:26.779 --> 00:24:30.160 and vitality. And he believed profoundly that 00:24:30.160 --> 00:24:32.380 an individual's character was revealed by every 00:24:32.380 --> 00:24:34.720 physical feature. Not just the face. Right. That 00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:36.700 every part of the body, not just the face, spoke 00:24:36.700 --> 00:24:38.960 for the whole. And we saw that perfectly articulated 00:24:38.960 --> 00:24:41.839 in his quote about the thinker, remember? Where 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:43.819 the contemplation is carried by the clenched 00:24:43.819 --> 00:24:47.440 fist and gripping toes. That concept. The total 00:24:47.440 --> 00:24:50.640 body as expression is absolutely central. He 00:24:50.640 --> 00:24:53.019 saw suffering and conflict as fundamental to 00:24:53.019 --> 00:24:56.160 modern existence, and therefore they had to be 00:24:56.160 --> 00:24:59.380 the hallmarks of modern art. He was echoing the 00:24:59.380 --> 00:25:01.920 raw, sometimes turbulent vision of poets like 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:04.599 Charles Baudelaire, whom he admired. So he took 00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:07.119 the physical form and made it a mirror for existential 00:25:07.119 --> 00:25:09.579 struggle, for the modern condition. You could 00:25:09.579 --> 00:25:12.180 say that, yeah. He made the body think, feel, 00:25:12.359 --> 00:25:15.440 suffer visibly. This leads us to his most radical 00:25:15.440 --> 00:25:18.700 methodological innovation, maybe. The idea of 00:25:18.700 --> 00:25:21.460 the fragment as an autonomous work. This is the 00:25:21.460 --> 00:25:23.759 concept that sounds revolutionary even today. 00:25:24.039 --> 00:25:26.880 A piece missing parts being complete. It was 00:25:26.880 --> 00:25:29.420 utterly radical at the time. Rodin views sculptural 00:25:29.420 --> 00:25:31.420 fragments pieces intentionally lacking arms, 00:25:31.500 --> 00:25:33.920 legs, or sometimes even a head. Not as failed 00:25:33.920 --> 00:25:35.859 attempts or damaged studies, but as complete 00:25:35.859 --> 00:25:38.259 autonomous works in themselves. Why? What was 00:25:38.259 --> 00:25:40.339 the point? Well, this moves sculpture away from 00:25:40.339 --> 00:25:42.440 the necessity of portraying an accurate likeness 00:25:42.440 --> 00:25:45.220 or telling a complete narrative story. It moved 00:25:45.220 --> 00:25:47.839 into a realm where forms existed purely for their 00:25:47.839 --> 00:25:49.960 own expressive potential, for the power of the 00:25:49.960 --> 00:25:52.940 gesture or the tension in the torso itself. So 00:25:52.940 --> 00:25:56.000 when we see a piece like The Walking Man, which 00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:58.920 is basically just a torso and legs, the missing 00:25:58.920 --> 00:26:02.200 parts are a statement, not an unfortunate omission. 00:26:02.680 --> 00:26:04.960 It is the essence of his statement. And to understand 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:06.880 how he achieved this, how he thought this way, 00:26:07.059 --> 00:26:09.539 we need to look into his workshop practice. It's 00:26:09.539 --> 00:26:12.740 quite revealing. Rodin's primary focus, personally, 00:26:12.900 --> 00:26:15.460 was the handling of clay. He would make quick, 00:26:15.519 --> 00:26:18.059 expressive sketches in clay. These would then 00:26:18.059 --> 00:26:22.039 be refined and, crucially, cast in plaster. He 00:26:22.039 --> 00:26:24.339 relied heavily on highly skilled assistants. 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:27.759 called partitions, to carry out the often laborious 00:26:27.759 --> 00:26:30.440 scaling up or down and the carving into marble 00:26:30.440 --> 00:26:33.079 or casting into bronze based on his plasters. 00:26:33.180 --> 00:26:35.160 So the plaster casts were key. They weren't just 00:26:35.160 --> 00:26:37.299 an intermediate step. They became the foundation 00:26:37.299 --> 00:26:40.240 of his revolutionary process. This is the genius 00:26:40.240 --> 00:26:42.910 of his method, really. Because clay deteriorates 00:26:42.910 --> 00:26:45.410 quickly, plaster casts were necessary just to 00:26:45.410 --> 00:26:47.529 preserve the form. Standard practice. Standard 00:26:47.529 --> 00:26:50.130 practice. But Rodin's innovation was recognizing 00:26:50.130 --> 00:26:53.430 that these casts were not just molds or preservation 00:26:53.430 --> 00:26:56.710 tools. They were raw material. He would accumulate 00:26:56.710 --> 00:26:59.950 dozens, sometimes hundreds, of plaster parts 00:26:59.950 --> 00:27:03.109 in his studio arms, legs, torsos, heads from 00:27:03.109 --> 00:27:05.789 different projects, different times. Like a library 00:27:05.789 --> 00:27:08.750 of body parts. Exactly. And then he would recombine 00:27:08.750 --> 00:27:10.589 them, mixing and matching parts from different 00:27:10.589 --> 00:27:13.210 figures, to create entirely new compositions, 00:27:13.549 --> 00:27:16.309 often giving them entirely new names. That sounds 00:27:16.309 --> 00:27:18.569 like an almost architectural or collage approach 00:27:18.569 --> 00:27:21.190 to the human body building new structures from 00:27:21.190 --> 00:27:23.589 existing components. Let's use The Walking Man 00:27:23.589 --> 00:27:25.529 as the ultimate case study. for this radical 00:27:25.529 --> 00:27:28.509 approach. The Walking Man, created around 1899 00:27:28.509 --> 00:27:31.109 -1900, is the perfect example of this composite 00:27:31.109 --> 00:27:33.650 method. It wasn't scarped from scratch as a single 00:27:33.650 --> 00:27:36.589 idea. Right. Rodin apparently found two neglected, 00:27:36.769 --> 00:27:39.769 maybe even damaged fragments from the 1870s lying 00:27:39.769 --> 00:27:42.309 around in his studio, a broken armless torso 00:27:42.309 --> 00:27:45.410 study and the lower extremities, the legs, from 00:27:45.410 --> 00:27:47.650 a statuette version of his earlier St. John the 00:27:47.650 --> 00:27:50.059 Baptist preaching. The one he made bigger to 00:27:50.059 --> 00:27:52.720 avoid the cheating accusations. That's the one. 00:27:52.880 --> 00:27:55.319 He fused these two disparate pieces together. 00:27:55.519 --> 00:27:58.079 The old torso, the old legs. So two forgotten 00:27:58.079 --> 00:28:00.680 fragments were united to create this singular, 00:28:00.859 --> 00:28:04.400 incredibly powerful statement of aggressive forward 00:28:04.400 --> 00:28:07.900 momentum. Yes. It's an act of reassembly that 00:28:07.900 --> 00:28:10.579 gives the fragments a new, fierce, and totally 00:28:10.579 --> 00:28:13.420 autonomous life. The very fact that it lacks 00:28:13.420 --> 00:28:16.579 arms and a head only serves to enhance its focus 00:28:16.579 --> 00:28:19.480 on the sheer physical force of the stride, the 00:28:19.480 --> 00:28:22.200 musculature of the torso and legs. It's a bold 00:28:22.200 --> 00:28:25.220 piece of anti -academic defiance, literally created 00:28:25.220 --> 00:28:28.059 from the detritus, the leftovers. of his earlier 00:28:28.059 --> 00:28:30.319 work his process for working with live models 00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:32.319 was also quite revolutionary compared to the 00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:34.619 stiff required poses in the academic studios 00:28:34.619 --> 00:28:37.180 he was denied access to absolutely he totally 00:28:37.180 --> 00:28:40.279 rejected the traditional academic postures rodin 00:28:40.279 --> 00:28:42.680 preferred his models to move naturally even spontaneously 00:28:42.680 --> 00:28:45.660 around the studio despite their nakedness which 00:28:45.660 --> 00:28:47.640 was still quite shocking to some he wanted to 00:28:47.640 --> 00:28:51.000 capture life not poses exactly he wanted to capture 00:28:51.000 --> 00:28:54.309 motion not stillness. He would sketch them rapidly 00:28:54.309 --> 00:28:56.950 in clay or on paper, often without taking his 00:28:56.950 --> 00:28:59.089 eyes off the model or his pencil from the paper, 00:28:59.230 --> 00:29:02.109 just seeking to capture that instantaneous vital 00:29:02.109 --> 00:29:05.410 force, that spark of movement. We have that fantastic 00:29:05.410 --> 00:29:08.190 anecdote from George Bernard Shaw, the playwright, 00:29:08.269 --> 00:29:10.509 when he sat for his portrait. He described the 00:29:10.509 --> 00:29:12.769 rapid changes in the bust Rodin was creating 00:29:12.769 --> 00:29:15.210 right in front of him. Shaw was apparently amazed. 00:29:15.430 --> 00:29:18.130 He described the bust's rapid evolution in just 00:29:18.130 --> 00:29:21.309 15 minutes, noting how Rodin's hands seemed to 00:29:21.309 --> 00:29:23.829 take the work through all the stages of art's 00:29:23.829 --> 00:29:26.690 evolution. In 15 minutes? Yeah. He said it began 00:29:26.690 --> 00:29:29.329 as a rough Byzantine masterpiece, then morphed 00:29:29.329 --> 00:29:31.789 into a form intermingled with the energy of Bernini, 00:29:31.990 --> 00:29:35.089 and then achieved the elegance of Houdon, another 00:29:35.089 --> 00:29:37.650 great sculptor. Shaw concluded that Rodin's hand 00:29:37.650 --> 00:29:39.490 worked not like a typical sculptor's, but like 00:29:39.490 --> 00:29:41.890 the work of Élan Vidal, the vital force itself, 00:29:42.170 --> 00:29:45.420 shaping the clay. That concept, Ilan Vital, the 00:29:45.420 --> 00:29:48.480 life force, it really speaks to the kinetic living 00:29:48.480 --> 00:29:51.380 quality he injected into the clay. And while 00:29:51.380 --> 00:29:53.980 he became famous or infamous for these dramatic, 00:29:54.220 --> 00:29:57.359 controversial figures, it was portraiture that 00:29:57.359 --> 00:29:59.720 ultimately ensured his financial survival, wasn't 00:29:59.720 --> 00:30:02.259 it? Portraiture was his anchor, financially and 00:30:02.259 --> 00:30:05.160 sometimes critically. Rodin created thousands 00:30:05.160 --> 00:30:07.880 of figures and drawings, but portraiture was 00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:10.279 essential for winning acceptance among the powerful 00:30:10.279 --> 00:30:12.240 in achieving financial independence. Good, the 00:30:12.240 --> 00:30:14.910 light's on. Pretty much. What? He produced at 00:30:14.910 --> 00:30:18.210 least 56 documented portraits between 1877 and 00:30:18.210 --> 00:30:20.509 his death, depicting major figures of the day. 00:30:20.529 --> 00:30:23.009 We mentioned George Bernard Shaw, also the composer 00:30:23.009 --> 00:30:25.809 Gustav Mahler, and the powerful French politician 00:30:25.809 --> 00:30:28.589 Georges Clemenceau. These commissions provided 00:30:28.589 --> 00:30:31.210 the consistent income necessary to fund the massive, 00:30:31.349 --> 00:30:33.829 decades -long, non -earning project like the 00:30:33.829 --> 00:30:36.190 Gates of Hell. Okay, so by the turn of the century, 00:30:36.309 --> 00:30:39.309 around 1900, despite all the battles, all the 00:30:39.309 --> 00:30:41.650 controversies, Rodin was finally an established 00:30:41.650 --> 00:30:44.269 international figure. The scale of his recognition 00:30:44.269 --> 00:30:46.869 seemed to balloon almost overnight. Yeah, his 00:30:46.869 --> 00:30:49.130 reputation just exploded around the time of the 00:30:49.130 --> 00:30:52.250 1900 World's Fair, the Exposition Universelle, 00:30:52.349 --> 00:30:55.670 in Paris. He did something quite clever. He actually 00:30:55.670 --> 00:30:58.349 bypassed the official fair structure. Instead, 00:30:58.509 --> 00:31:01.210 he funded and operated his own pavilion of his 00:31:01.210 --> 00:31:03.589 art nearby. A solo show right next to the main 00:31:03.589 --> 00:31:06.710 event. Bold move. Very bold. Yeah. And it captured 00:31:06.710 --> 00:31:09.309 massive attention. His income from portrait commissions 00:31:09.309 --> 00:31:13.029 alone reportedly reached an astonishing 200 ,000 00:31:13.029 --> 00:31:16.309 francs a year around this time, making him properly 00:31:16.309 --> 00:31:18.349 financially independent for the first time in 00:31:18.349 --> 00:31:21.690 his life. Wow. This success attracted tremendous 00:31:21.690 --> 00:31:24.990 admirers, including, famously, the young poet 00:31:24.990 --> 00:31:27.390 Rainer Maria Rilke, who actually served as Rodin's 00:31:27.390 --> 00:31:30.269 secretary for a time, and wrote a highly laudatory, 00:31:30.390 --> 00:31:32.650 very influential monograph about the sculptor. 00:31:32.859 --> 00:31:34.740 It's interesting, though, to note the contrast 00:31:34.740 --> 00:31:37.240 between his growing acceptance in certain European 00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:39.680 circles and the difficulty he apparently faced 00:31:39.680 --> 00:31:42.599 cracking the American market. Yeah. Acceptance 00:31:42.599 --> 00:31:44.599 of the United States was initially quite fraught. 00:31:44.599 --> 00:31:47.680 It was primarily due to prevailing moral standards, 00:31:47.920 --> 00:31:50.700 you know, sort of puritanical streaks that clashed 00:31:50.700 --> 00:31:53.319 violently with the frankness of Rodin's technique 00:31:53.319 --> 00:31:56.079 and especially his frequent use of the nude form. 00:31:56.240 --> 00:31:58.720 Too much skin for the Americans. Basically, yes. 00:31:59.230 --> 00:32:01.809 This contrast was starkly illustrated at the 00:32:01.809 --> 00:32:05.809 1893 Chicago World Fair. Rodin's nudes pieces 00:32:05.809 --> 00:32:09.269 like Cupid and Psyche, Sphinx and Andromeda caused 00:32:09.269 --> 00:32:12.170 such a public uproar. What uproar? Oh yeah, such 00:32:12.170 --> 00:32:14.029 an uproar that they were ultimately hidden behind 00:32:14.029 --> 00:32:16.410 a heavy drape in a separate area. You needed 00:32:16.410 --> 00:32:18.450 special private permission just to view them. 00:32:18.779 --> 00:32:21.880 So his work was literally deemed too scandalous 00:32:21.880 --> 00:32:24.059 for public consumption in America at that point. 00:32:24.099 --> 00:32:26.160 Pretty much. It took the dedicated efforts of 00:32:26.160 --> 00:32:28.359 curators like Sarah Tyson Halliwell, who acted 00:32:28.359 --> 00:32:30.559 as an advisor and promoter, to introduce his 00:32:30.559 --> 00:32:33.059 work carefully to major American collectors like 00:32:33.059 --> 00:32:35.740 the Palmers in Chicago and Isabella Stewart Gardner 00:32:35.740 --> 00:32:38.660 in Boston. Charles Yerkes, the transit magnate, 00:32:38.660 --> 00:32:40.579 was likely the first American to own a major 00:32:40.579 --> 00:32:43.339 Rodin sculpture, purchasing two large marbles. 00:32:44.039 --> 00:32:46.599 But American acceptance remained slow and tentative 00:32:46.599 --> 00:32:49.579 for many years. Conversely, he developed a significant 00:32:49.579 --> 00:32:52.059 and loyal following in Great Britain much earlier, 00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:54.900 didn't he? Yes, thanks largely to friends and 00:32:54.900 --> 00:32:57.220 champions there, like the artist Alphonse Le 00:32:57.220 --> 00:33:00.079 Gros and the influential poet and editor William 00:33:00.079 --> 00:33:02.240 Ernest Henley, who recognized his genius early 00:33:02.240 --> 00:33:05.019 on. Rodin became a regular visitor to Britain 00:33:05.019 --> 00:33:07.940 after 1900. He felt welcome there. He seemed 00:33:07.940 --> 00:33:11.099 to. And this culminated in a major act of generosity 00:33:11.099 --> 00:33:14.140 during a time of international crisis. In 1914, 00:33:14.380 --> 00:33:17.000 at the outbreak of World War I, Rodin donated 00:33:17.000 --> 00:33:19.299 a significant selection of his work, I think 00:33:19.299 --> 00:33:22.140 about 18 pieces to the British nation, as a gesture 00:33:22.140 --> 00:33:25.539 of solidarity. Significant gift. Huge. He had 00:33:25.539 --> 00:33:27.339 truly cemented his place in the Anglo -American 00:33:27.339 --> 00:33:30.299 art world by then, even briefly serving as president 00:33:30.299 --> 00:33:32.940 of the International Society of Painters. sculptors 00:33:32.940 --> 00:33:35.900 and engravers in London in 1903. As he entered 00:33:35.900 --> 00:33:38.519 his later creative years, what occupied his artistic 00:33:38.519 --> 00:33:41.279 attention? Did his focus shift? It did seem to 00:33:41.279 --> 00:33:43.480 shift, yeah. His focus turned intensely toward 00:33:43.480 --> 00:33:46.039 the female form and themes of overt masculinity 00:33:46.039 --> 00:33:48.819 and femininity, often expressed through dynamic 00:33:48.819 --> 00:33:51.579 movement. He concentrated on small dance studies, 00:33:51.779 --> 00:33:54.039 capturing motion with incredible spontaneity. 00:33:54.299 --> 00:33:57.099 More movement studies. Yes. And he also produced 00:33:57.099 --> 00:33:59.990 thousands of erotic drawings. often executing 00:33:59.990 --> 00:34:02.609 them very loosely, in the same rapid style he 00:34:02.609 --> 00:34:04.650 used for his model studies, famously drawing 00:34:04.650 --> 00:34:07.230 without lifting his pencil or taking his eyes 00:34:07.230 --> 00:34:09.650 from the model. Just pure observation flowing 00:34:09.650 --> 00:34:11.739 onto the page. We hear about his fascination 00:34:11.739 --> 00:34:14.219 with dancers in particular during this late period. 00:34:14.559 --> 00:34:16.940 Dancers were definitely key muses for these kinetic 00:34:16.940 --> 00:34:19.860 studies. He was utterly enchanted by the Royal 00:34:19.860 --> 00:34:22.480 Ballet of Cambodia dancers during their performance 00:34:22.480 --> 00:34:26.099 in Paris in 1906. Cambodian dancers? Yes, quite 00:34:26.099 --> 00:34:28.800 exotic for Paris then. He produced some of his 00:34:28.800 --> 00:34:31.519 most famous, fluid, almost frenetic drawings 00:34:31.519 --> 00:34:33.639 from that experience, capturing their unique 00:34:33.639 --> 00:34:35.900 movements. He also sketched the American modern 00:34:35.900 --> 00:34:39.320 dancer Isadora Duncan and, well... Reflecting 00:34:39.320 --> 00:34:41.519 his lifelong passionate temperament, he apparently 00:34:41.519 --> 00:34:43.800 attempted, rather unsuccessfully, to seduce her. 00:34:44.019 --> 00:34:46.539 Always the artist, always the man. His personal 00:34:46.539 --> 00:34:49.280 life saw a final, brief moment of closure after 00:34:49.280 --> 00:34:51.920 that lifetime of complexity with Rose Bure, his 00:34:51.920 --> 00:34:55.619 companion. Yes. After 53 tumultuous years together, 00:34:55.880 --> 00:34:58.739 through thick and thin, Rodin finally married 00:34:58.739 --> 00:35:03.300 Rose Bure on January 29, 1917. This gesture of 00:35:03.300 --> 00:35:06.539 lifelong fidelity. though incredibly late, perhaps 00:35:06.539 --> 00:35:09.099 provided some form of reconciliation or peace 00:35:09.099 --> 00:35:12.019 for them both. 53 years. Tragically, though, 00:35:12.079 --> 00:35:14.400 she died just two weeks later, on February 16. 00:35:14.719 --> 00:35:17.619 Oh, no. Rodin, who was already frail and suffering 00:35:17.619 --> 00:35:20.219 from illness himself, possibly the flu pandemic 00:35:20.219 --> 00:35:22.260 that was starting, followed her later that same 00:35:22.260 --> 00:35:25.780 year. He died on November 17, 1917, at age 77. 00:35:26.230 --> 00:35:28.690 And his physical legacy, his work, is cemented 00:35:28.690 --> 00:35:30.829 in France, thanks to his careful planning before 00:35:30.829 --> 00:35:33.909 his death. It is. Rodin had the immense foresight, 00:35:33.909 --> 00:35:36.050 really, to will his entire studio, all of his 00:35:36.050 --> 00:35:38.110 plaster casts, his drawings, his collection, 00:35:38.250 --> 00:35:40.289 and crucially, his casting rights to the French 00:35:40.289 --> 00:35:43.369 state. Everything. Everything. This incredibly 00:35:43.369 --> 00:35:45.849 generous decision led directly to the founding 00:35:45.849 --> 00:35:49.030 of the Musée Rodin in 1916, which opened shortly 00:35:49.030 --> 00:35:52.429 after his death in 1919 at the Hotel Blanc, the 00:35:52.429 --> 00:35:54.170 beautiful Parisian mansion where he had lived 00:35:54.170 --> 00:35:56.829 and worked. Today, the museum holds the largest 00:35:56.829 --> 00:36:00.110 collection, over 6 ,000 sculptures alone, plus 00:36:00.110 --> 00:36:02.909 drawings and more. It's dedicated to maintaining 00:36:02.909 --> 00:36:05.829 the authenticity of his output. And as his ultimate 00:36:05.829 --> 00:36:08.880 epitaph, What marks his grave? As he himself 00:36:08.880 --> 00:36:11.179 wished, a cast of the Thinker was placed next 00:36:11.179 --> 00:36:14.179 to his tomb in Udon, just outside Paris, serving 00:36:14.179 --> 00:36:16.800 as his headstone. It's a fitting end, isn't it, 00:36:16.800 --> 00:36:18.920 for a man who dedicated his life to showing that 00:36:18.920 --> 00:36:21.400 the entire body is merely an expression of the 00:36:21.400 --> 00:36:24.480 conflicted, powerful human mind. Rodin's influence 00:36:24.480 --> 00:36:26.900 is just undeniable. He is recognized, really, 00:36:26.980 --> 00:36:28.940 as the single most important sculptor of the 00:36:28.940 --> 00:36:31.659 modern era. He restored sculpture's ancient power 00:36:31.659 --> 00:36:34.219 to capture not just likeness, but physical and 00:36:34.219 --> 00:36:37.139 intellectual force. His influence spread globally, 00:36:37.340 --> 00:36:39.880 shaping a whole new generation of artists who 00:36:39.880 --> 00:36:42.539 came after him. Sculptors like Antoine Brudel, 00:36:42.719 --> 00:36:46.559 Constantin Brancoy, even Henry Moore later on, 00:36:46.599 --> 00:36:50.210 all owe a debt to Rodin. Brocuse, in fact, initially 00:36:50.210 --> 00:36:52.090 worked briefly as one of Rodin's assistants. 00:36:52.369 --> 00:36:54.210 Oh, really? I didn't know that. Yeah, though 00:36:54.210 --> 00:36:56.250 he famously left after only about a month, saying, 00:36:56.369 --> 00:36:58.309 nothing grows in the shadow of a great tree. 00:36:59.070 --> 00:37:02.110 He felt compelled to find his own path, but significantly, 00:37:02.369 --> 00:37:04.929 he only sought his path after studying the master 00:37:04.929 --> 00:37:08.510 up close. But the very method that helped preserve 00:37:08.510 --> 00:37:11.590 his legacy, the ability to make multiple authorized 00:37:11.590 --> 00:37:15.010 bronze casts from the plasters, also created 00:37:15.010 --> 00:37:17.800 one of his greatest modern challenges. The huge 00:37:17.800 --> 00:37:20.820 problem of forgery. Yes. Rodin is reliably among 00:37:20.820 --> 00:37:23.860 the top 10 most faked artists globally. It's 00:37:23.860 --> 00:37:26.460 a huge issue. His unique workshop method, which 00:37:26.460 --> 00:37:29.079 relied on those authorized bronze reproductions 00:37:29.079 --> 00:37:31.420 cast from the original plaster models he left 00:37:31.420 --> 00:37:34.019 to the state. Well, it made forgery a tempting 00:37:34.019 --> 00:37:35.860 proposition. Because plaster is relatively easy 00:37:35.860 --> 00:37:39.150 to copy. Exactly. Unauthorized copies, sometimes 00:37:39.150 --> 00:37:41.570 made from legitimate casts, sometimes from newly 00:37:41.570 --> 00:37:44.769 made molds, became widespread. The Musée Rodin 00:37:44.769 --> 00:37:47.090 has spent decades trying to research, catalog, 00:37:47.369 --> 00:37:49.650 and manage this problem, which is why the French 00:37:49.650 --> 00:37:51.849 government eventually had to step in with legislation. 00:37:52.250 --> 00:37:55.090 How did they try to control... this market for 00:37:55.090 --> 00:37:58.070 casts. Well, it's 1956. France has promulgated 00:37:58.070 --> 00:38:00.809 laws that limit authorized editions of an artist's 00:38:00.809 --> 00:38:03.550 work, meaning casts made after the artist's death 00:38:03.550 --> 00:38:06.329 under the state's authority to a maximum of 12 00:38:06.329 --> 00:38:09.409 casts. Maybe 12. 12 numbered casts, plus usually 00:38:09.409 --> 00:38:12.070 a few artist proofs. This ensures that any piece 00:38:12.070 --> 00:38:14.090 beyond that limited edition cannot be considered 00:38:14.090 --> 00:38:16.849 a genuine, authorized, posthumous work and helps 00:38:16.849 --> 00:38:19.559 control the supply and maintain value. Despite 00:38:19.559 --> 00:38:21.699 the challenge of fakes, verified Rodin works, 00:38:21.800 --> 00:38:23.780 of course, command massive prices, like that 00:38:23.780 --> 00:38:25.780 Bronze Eve grand model version Saint -Rochet, 00:38:25.840 --> 00:38:29.320 a large E figure it sold for $18 .9 million back 00:38:29.320 --> 00:38:33.360 in 2008. Wow. What an incredible journey, from 00:38:33.360 --> 00:38:35.940 being rejected three times by the academic establishment 00:38:35.940 --> 00:38:38.079 and basically living as a mere craftsman for 00:38:38.079 --> 00:38:41.480 decades, to fundamentally inventing a new, emotional, 00:38:41.599 --> 00:38:44.000 and fragmented way of sculpting that continues 00:38:44.000 --> 00:38:47.409 to influence art today. Rodin survived early 00:38:47.409 --> 00:38:49.610 rejection and poverty by mastering the craft. 00:38:49.929 --> 00:38:52.710 Only to completely revolutionize that very craft, 00:38:52.889 --> 00:38:55.630 based on the powerful lesson he took from Michelangelo, 00:38:55.730 --> 00:38:57.949 that truth and emotion were more important than 00:38:57.949 --> 00:39:00.130 polish. Yeah. And if we look back at the core 00:39:00.130 --> 00:39:02.369 innovations, what truly distinguishes him, I 00:39:02.369 --> 00:39:05.750 think, is threefold. First, that absolute commitment 00:39:05.750 --> 00:39:08.969 to radical naturalism over tired idealism. Second, 00:39:09.170 --> 00:39:11.570 the revolutionary use of the fragment as an autonomous, 00:39:11.750 --> 00:39:14.510 expressive, artistic statement, perfectly exemplified 00:39:14.510 --> 00:39:16.409 by the reassembly of the walking man. Right, 00:39:16.489 --> 00:39:18.150 the fragments. And third, the transformation 00:39:18.150 --> 00:39:20.949 of a failed commission, the gates of hell, into 00:39:20.949 --> 00:39:23.309 a four -decade laboratory for exploring modern 00:39:23.309 --> 00:39:25.909 psychological and physical expression. He succeeded 00:39:25.909 --> 00:39:29.230 because he insisted, against all odds, on modeling 00:39:29.230 --> 00:39:31.789 the body to express the complexity of the conflicted 00:39:31.789 --> 00:39:34.650 human mind. Rodin's life and art are just so 00:39:34.650 --> 00:39:36.929 defined by struggle, the fight for recognition, 00:39:37.289 --> 00:39:39.969 the emotional toll of controversies like Balzac, 00:39:40.230 --> 00:39:42.630 the chaotic, unfinished beauty of the gates. 00:39:42.909 --> 00:39:45.250 It leaves us with a really provocative final 00:39:45.250 --> 00:39:47.789 thought, doesn't it? I think so. Consider this 00:39:47.789 --> 00:39:50.670 for yourself. Rodin's most profound modern legacy 00:39:50.670 --> 00:39:53.230 rests significantly on works that were either 00:39:53.230 --> 00:39:55.969 technically unfinished, like The Gates of Hell, 00:39:56.090 --> 00:39:58.289 or were deliberately presented as fragments, 00:39:58.570 --> 00:40:01.000 like The Walking Man. They challenged the very 00:40:01.000 --> 00:40:02.920 definition of what a complete sculpture even 00:40:02.920 --> 00:40:06.380 was. So maybe in a world like ours, full of continuous 00:40:06.380 --> 00:40:08.719 information and constant change, is the true 00:40:08.719 --> 00:40:11.340 power of knowledge or art, sometimes found not 00:40:11.340 --> 00:40:13.719 in the polished, final, perfect product, but 00:40:13.719 --> 00:40:16.440 in the incomplete, in the turbulent process, 00:40:16.699 --> 00:40:19.119 in the struggle itself. Rodin's career teaches 00:40:19.119 --> 00:40:20.980 us that the highest acclaim, the most lasting 00:40:20.980 --> 00:40:23.340 impact, can emerge directly from what was originally 00:40:23.340 --> 00:40:26.179 deemed a failure, a controversy, or just a fragment. 00:40:26.320 --> 00:40:27.320 Something to think about.