today’s image: Portrait of Auguste Rodin

Portrait of Auguste Rodin

In 1905, photographer Gertrude K?sebier captures the profile of artist and sculputer Auguste Rodin in Meudon, France.

Photo: Library of Congress

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quotation: A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labour and there is invisible labour. Victor Hugo

A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labour and there is invisible labour.

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) Discuss

today’s birthday: Auguste Rodin (1840)

Auguste Rodin (1840)

Rodin was a French sculptor noted for his renderings of the human form. He spent 37 years working on The Gates of Hell, a monumental sculptural group commissioned for a proposed Musée des Arts Décoratifs and inspired by Dante’s Inferno. The project was never finished, but many of the 186 figures intended for it, including The Thinker, The Three Shades, and The Kiss, were later presented as individual works. Who was The Thinker intended to represent? More… Discuss

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Today’s Birthday: CAMILLE CLAUDEL (1864)

Camille Claudel (1864)

A skilled French sculptor in her own right, Claudel is best remembered for being a student, collaborator, model, and mistress of famed sculptor Auguste Rodin. The two had a tumultuous affair that began to crumble in the 1890s, and Claudel, who suffered from mental illness, became increasingly unstable and reclusive. She was committed in 1913 and remained institutionalized until her death 30 years later. Her work is highly valued by collectors, but little of it survives today. Why is this?More… Discuss

 

Today’s Birthday: Gertrude Käsebier (1852)

Gertrude Käsebier (1852)

Käsebier was one of the most influential American photographers of the early 20th century and a promoter of photography as a career for women. She photographed famous figures like the sculptor Auguste Rodin and American showman Buffalo Bill, but she is best known for her evocative images of motherhood and portraits of Native Americans. In 1899, Alfred Stieglitz declared her “the leading artistic portrait photographer of the day,” but a decade later, he was speaking out against her work. Why? More… Discuss

Camille Claudel: She Shared Her Heart With The Stone Of Her Sculpture

Music: Chopin Notturno Op 27 n 1

Fascinated with stone and soil as a child, as a young woman she studied at the Académie Colarossi with sculptor Alfred Boucher. (At the time, the École des Beaux-Arts barred women from enrolling to study.) In 1882, Claudel rented a workshop with other young women, mostly English, including Jessie Lipscomb. In 1883, she met Auguste Rodin, who taught sculpture to Claudel and her friends.

Around 1884, she started working in Rodin’s workshop. Claudel became a source of inspiration, his model, his confidante and lover. She never lived with Rodin, who was reluctant to end his 20-year relationship with Rose Beuret. Knowledge of the affair agitated her family, especially her mother, who never completely agreed with Claudel’s involvement in the arts. As a consequence, she left the family house. In 1892, after an unwanted abortion, Claudel ended the intimate aspect of her relationship with Rodin, although they saw each other regularly until 1898. Read more about Camille Claudel at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camille_Claudel