Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) French, Print. Titled "Nu Allonge Sur le Ventre" (Naked Lying on Stomach). Initialed "AR" bottom right. Depicts a naked woman lying on her stomach.

Depth: 1 1/2 in.

Overall size: 44 X 36 1/2 in.

Sight size: 34 1/4 X 26 3/4 in.

#1525 .

Auguste Rodin was born into a hard-working religious family in Mouffetard, an historic section of Paris, France, in 1840. By the age of 14 he was ignoring traditional school subjects in favor of drawing. He enrolled in morning classes in the Petite Ecole, a government-sponsored art school. He spent his afternoons in the Louvre and took life-drawing classes at the Gobelin Tapestry Works at night. By the age of 17 he won his first prize in clay, and began to focus on sculpting. His untraditional style caused him to be rejected three times by the Ecole des Beaux Arts, and instead he attended the School of Decorative Arts from 1854 to 1857, a student of the sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. Most of the next 20 years of his life was spent doing decorative sculpture for building contractors as a result. While in Brussels he became an assistant to Albert Carrier De Belleuse, who eventually became his major artistic rival. After the death of his sister Maria in 1862, which he blamed himself for, he abandoned art and joined a Christian order. While there he read voraciously to make up for his lack of formal education. A fellow priest encouraged him not to ignore his talent, and he returned to sculpting under animalist Antione-Louis Bayre. In 1864 he began a life-long relationship with Rose Beuret, a seamstress, having a son with her two years later. In 1875 he traveled to Italy, where he studied the work of Michelangelo, heavily influenced by him thereafter. In his later life he became known for his modernist style that redefined sculpture in the 19th century, moving it from the rigid Academic and Neo-Classical schools into Impressionism and Realism. His work was so life-like that he was often accused of making casts from live bodies. He also dealt with erotic and political themes that spoke of contemporary issues eschewed as inappropriate, such as when his work “The Kiss” was rejected by the Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 for being too sexual for public display. Nevertheless, he received numerous honors including from Oxford University and the French government such as the Grand Officer of the Legion of Merit. Many books were written about him and he became an internationally renowned figure within his own lifetime. He died in 1917 in Meudon, France, having been weakened a year earlier by a stroke. 

Location BB