Monument to Balzac is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin in memory of the French novelist Honoré de Balzac. According to Rodin, the sculpture aims to portray the writer's persona rather than a physical likeness. The work was commissioned in 1891 by the Société des Gens de Lettres and a full-size plaster model was displayed in 1898 at a Salon in Champ de Mars. After coming under criticism the model was rejected by the société and Rodin moved it to his home in Meudon. On 2 July 1939 (22 years after the sculptor's death) the model was cast in bronze for the first time and placed on the Boulevard du Montparnasse at the intersection with Boulevard Raspail.
| Monument to Balzac | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Auguste Rodin |
| Year | 1892–1897 |
| Type | Sculpture |
| Location | Musée Rodin, Paris |
Casts and various studies of the sculpture are today in many different collections including the Ackland Art Museum,Middelheim Open Air Sculpture Museum in Antwerp, The Norton Simon Museum of Art, the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, the Musée Rodin in Meudon, the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, the Hirshhorn Museum, the Hirschhorn Sculpture Garden (Smithsonian) in Washington D.C, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, in front of the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands, in Caracas, Venezuela in the open spaces around the former Ateneo de Caracas, now UNEARTES and Balzac in the Robe of a Dominican Monk in Museo Soumaya in Mexico City. Today the artwork is sometimes considered the first truly modern sculpture.
In his 1969 documentary series Civilisation, Kenneth Clark said Rodin's statue of Balzac is "the greatest piece of sculpture of the nineteenth century — perhaps, indeed, since Michelangelo," continuing that, "Balzac, with his prodigious understanding of human motives scorns conventional values, defies fashionable opinions, as Beethoven did, and should inspire us to defy all those forces that threaten to impair our humanity: lies, tanks, tear gas, ideologies, opinion polls, mechanisation, planners, computers—the whole lot."
Commission
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The Société des Gens de Lettres (Paris, France) considered four different artists for the sculptural work before it was given to Rodin. The first was French neoclassical artist Henri Chapu, but he died in 1891 before the work could be finalized. Marquet de Vasselot was the next artist considered for the sculpture and provided a bust of the writer for the Societé. At the same time artists Millet and Coutan also applied for the commission.
Rodin was not initially considered for the work because at that point in time, around 1885, his career had not become as prominent. After the death of Chapu, the recently elected president of the Societé, Émile Zola strongly supported Rodin for the job and, so, the artist submitted a proposal to have a completed three-meter statue of the French novelist within an eighteen-month period which was approved.
The commission was in response to the elevated importance of Honoré de Balzac after his death. Balzac was one of the founders of the Societé as well as the second president of the organization. Upon his death in 1850 interest in creating a statue to commemorate the writer quickly developed under the leadership of Alexandre Dumas, père.
Preparation
Instead of the designated eighteen-month period of time, Rodin employed a lengthy seven years to finish the work. Rodin became infatuated with the literature of his subject as well as researched the character and personality of Balzac, similar to the writer's own approach to character development. In preparation for the sculpture, Rodin read the author's works as well as traveled numerous times to the author's hometown of Touraine in order to sketch and model clay portrait studies from individuals with similar likeness to the novelist although Rodin never saw him in person. Rodin had clothes resembling those of the Balzac's made by the writer's former tailor, using a cloak similar to Balzac's writing cloak for his final statue. The studies ranged from portrait to muscular and elderly nude figures along with humorous and distorted representations with sexual emphasis. Rodin repeatedly studied the cloak as well as different facial features that he derived from his observational studies and limited references including a daguerreotype of Balzac. Each sketch evolved and transformed into a different representation of the novelist varying from phallic nudes to heavily clothed and hidden figures.
In 1894, the Societé threatened to step in legally with the commission, turn the job over to artist Alexandre Falguière and take away Rodin's payment. Yet Rodin continued to ask for extensions on time making over fifty studies and continuously distanced himself from a true physical portrayal, tending towards a more psychological representation. The artist became infatuated with capturing the essence of the author's strength. In a message to writer in May 1898, Rodin explained his artistic pursuit:
The only thing I realize today is that the neck is too strong. I thought I had to enlarge it because according to me, modern sculpture must exaggerate the forms from the moral point of view. Through the exaggerated neck I wanted to represent strength I realize that the execution exceeded the idea.
In The Art of Dramatic Writing, Lajos Egri, perhaps apocryphally, describes the statue as originally having a pair of folded hands. After Rodin's students complimented the hands to the exclusion of the rest of the statue, he removed them, fearing they were overpowering.
Final study
The Final Study for the Monument to Balzac, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, NY, is a smaller version study for the final statue. The poem Information Desk: An Epic, by Robyn Schiff, features this work as a central figure in "Part 1" of the poem.
Rejection
Finally in 1898, Rodin presented a plaster study of the Balzac statue in the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. The sculpture was not received well by the critics; Rodin took the negativity as a personal attack. Many disliked the grotesque stature of the figure while others criticized the work as too similar to that of the Italian impressionist Medardo Rosso. As well, reports surfaced before the unveiling of the sculpture regarding anticipated dismay over the final outcome of the artwork. The Société des Gens de Lettres decided to disregard the commissioning of Rodin and not accept the sculpture.
Regardless of rejection from his commissionaires, contemporaries such as Paul Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec and Claude Monet supported Rodin in his point of view. Against the rejection a petition was raised in mid-1898 by supporters in the artistic community, and subscriptions to a fund of 30,000 francs to complete and install the work were raised, yet in the end, Rodin decidedly declined any bids for the work and kept the plaster artwork in his home at Meudon.
Monumental casts
- France
- Musée Rodin Paris
- at the crossroads of boulevard Raspail and boulevard du Montparnasse, also known as carrefour Vavin, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris (since 1939)
- Germany
- in front of Kunsthaus Lempertz, looking at in Cologne (since May 2022)
- Japan
- Hakone Open-Air Museum
- Australia
- National Gallery of Victoria (since 1968)
See also
- List of sculptures by Auguste Rodin
- List of public art in Washington, D.C., Ward 2
References
- "The Museum of Modern Art". Retrieved 7 August 2008.
- "Rodin Works: Monument to Balzac". Rodin-Web.org. Retrieved 18 July 2010.
- "Head of Balzac, 1897". collection.ackland.org. Retrieved 12 July 2019.
- Clarke, Kenneth. "Civilisation (1969), Episode 12: "The Fallacies of Hope"". Archived from the original on 21 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2020 – via YouTube.
- Gurney, Tom (19 June 2020). "Monument to Balzac by Auguste Rodin". www.thehistoryofart.org. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
- Lajos Egri, The Art of Dramatic Writing, Simon & Schuster, 2004.
- "Final Study of the Monument to Balzac". Retrieved 8 July 2010.
- "Information Desk: An Epic by Robyn Schiff". www.publishersweekly.com. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
- Morhardt, Mathias (15 December 1934). "La Bataille du "Balzac"". Mercure de France. pp. 463–489.
- "Collection Online : Rodin, Balzac". National Gallery of Victoria.
Further reading
- Chevillot, Catherine; Marraud, Hélène; Pinet, Hélène; Adamson, John (transl.) (November 2014). Rodin: The Laboratory of Creation. Dijon: Éditions Faton. ISBN 9782878442007.
- Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette (September 2014). Rodin. New York: Abbeville. ISBN 9780789212078.
- Miller, Joan Vita (1986). Rodin: the B. Gerald Cantor Collection. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 9780870994432.
External links
- "Auguste Rodin: Final Study of the Monument to Balzac (1984.364.15)". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/rodn/ho_1984.364.15.htm (October 2006)
- Pensive Texts and Thinking Statues: Balzac with Rodin, Naomi Schor, Critical Inquiry, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Winter, 2001), pp. 239–265 _(article consists of 27 pages) Published by: The University of Chicago Press
- Cladel, Judith. Rodin. New York: Hardcourt, Brace and Company, 1937. Print.
- Brians, Paul. Naturalism and Realism. 1 Mar. 2006. Web. <http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/hum_303/naturalism.html>.
- Tacha Spear, Athena. Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Ohio: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. Print.
- Elsen, Albert E. In Rodin's Studio. Oxford: Phaidon Limited, 1980. Print.
- de Caso, Jacques. "Rodin and the Cult of Balzac". Vol. 106. Burlington Magazine Publications, 1964. Print. Ser. 735.
Media related to Monument à Balzac by Auguste Rodin (Musée Rodin) at Wikimedia Commons
- Schor, Naomi (2001). "Pensive Texts and Thinking Statues: Balzac with Rodin". Critical Inquiry. 27 (2): 239–265. ISSN 0093-1896.
Monument to Balzac is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin in memory of the French novelist Honore de Balzac According to Rodin the sculpture aims to portray the writer s persona rather than a physical likeness The work was commissioned in 1891 by the Societe des Gens de Lettres and a full size plaster model was displayed in 1898 at a Salon in Champ de Mars After coming under criticism the model was rejected by the societe and Rodin moved it to his home in Meudon On 2 July 1939 22 years after the sculptor s death the model was cast in bronze for the first time and placed on the Boulevard du Montparnasse at the intersection with Boulevard Raspail Monument to BalzacArtistAuguste RodinYear1892 1897TypeSculptureLocationMusee Rodin Paris Casts and various studies of the sculpture are today in many different collections including the Ackland Art Museum Middelheim Open Air Sculpture Museum in Antwerp The Norton Simon Museum of Art the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo the Musee Rodin in Meudon the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia the Hirshhorn Museum the Hirschhorn Sculpture Garden Smithsonian in Washington D C The Metropolitan Museum of Art the Museum of Modern Art in New York City the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford in front of the Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven Netherlands in Caracas Venezuela in the open spaces around the former Ateneo de Caracas now UNEARTES and Balzac in the Robe of a Dominican Monk in Museo Soumaya in Mexico City Today the artwork is sometimes considered the first truly modern sculpture In his 1969 documentary series Civilisation Kenneth Clark said Rodin s statue of Balzac is the greatest piece of sculpture of the nineteenth century perhaps indeed since Michelangelo continuing that Balzac with his prodigious understanding of human motives scorns conventional values defies fashionable opinions as Beethoven did and should inspire us to defy all those forces that threaten to impair our humanity lies tanks tear gas ideologies opinion polls mechanisation planners computers the whole lot CommissionThis section needs additional citations for verification Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section Unsourced material may be challenged and removed Find sources Monument to Balzac news newspapers books scholar JSTOR August 2022 Learn how and when to remove this message The Societe des Gens de Lettres Paris France considered four different artists for the sculptural work before it was given to Rodin The first was French neoclassical artist Henri Chapu but he died in 1891 before the work could be finalized Marquet de Vasselot was the next artist considered for the sculpture and provided a bust of the writer for the Societe At the same time artists Millet and Coutan also applied for the commission Rodin was not initially considered for the work because at that point in time around 1885 his career had not become as prominent After the death of Chapu the recently elected president of the Societe Emile Zola strongly supported Rodin for the job and so the artist submitted a proposal to have a completed three meter statue of the French novelist within an eighteen month period which was approved The commission was in response to the elevated importance of Honore de Balzac after his death Balzac was one of the founders of the Societe as well as the second president of the organization Upon his death in 1850 interest in creating a statue to commemorate the writer quickly developed under the leadership of Alexandre Dumas pere Preparation Instead of the designated eighteen month period of time Rodin employed a lengthy seven years to finish the work Rodin became infatuated with the literature of his subject as well as researched the character and personality of Balzac similar to the writer s own approach to character development In preparation for the sculpture Rodin read the author s works as well as traveled numerous times to the author s hometown of Touraine in order to sketch and model clay portrait studies from individuals with similar likeness to the novelist although Rodin never saw him in person Rodin had clothes resembling those of the Balzac s made by the writer s former tailor using a cloak similar to Balzac s writing cloak for his final statue The studies ranged from portrait to muscular and elderly nude figures along with humorous and distorted representations with sexual emphasis Rodin repeatedly studied the cloak as well as different facial features that he derived from his observational studies and limited references including a daguerreotype of Balzac Each sketch evolved and transformed into a different representation of the novelist varying from phallic nudes to heavily clothed and hidden figures In 1894 the Societe threatened to step in legally with the commission turn the job over to artist Alexandre Falguiere and take away Rodin s payment Yet Rodin continued to ask for extensions on time making over fifty studies and continuously distanced himself from a true physical portrayal tending towards a more psychological representation The artist became infatuated with capturing the essence of the author s strength In a message to writer in May 1898 Rodin explained his artistic pursuit The only thing I realize today is that the neck is too strong I thought I had to enlarge it because according to me modern sculpture must exaggerate the forms from the moral point of view Through the exaggerated neck I wanted to represent strength I realize that the execution exceeded the idea In The Art of Dramatic Writing Lajos Egri perhaps apocryphally describes the statue as originally having a pair of folded hands After Rodin s students complimented the hands to the exclusion of the rest of the statue he removed them fearing they were overpowering Final study The Final Study for the Monument to Balzac at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York NY is a smaller version study for the final statue The poem Information Desk An Epic by Robyn Schiff features this work as a central figure in Part 1 of the poem Rejection Monument to Balzac photographed by Edward Steichen 1911Monument to Balzac in Paris by Auguste Rodin Finally in 1898 Rodin presented a plaster study of the Balzac statue in the Salon de la Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts The sculpture was not received well by the critics Rodin took the negativity as a personal attack Many disliked the grotesque stature of the figure while others criticized the work as too similar to that of the Italian impressionist Medardo Rosso As well reports surfaced before the unveiling of the sculpture regarding anticipated dismay over the final outcome of the artwork The Societe des Gens de Lettres decided to disregard the commissioning of Rodin and not accept the sculpture Regardless of rejection from his commissionaires contemporaries such as Paul Cezanne Toulouse Lautrec and Claude Monet supported Rodin in his point of view Against the rejection a petition was raised in mid 1898 by supporters in the artistic community and subscriptions to a fund of 30 000 francs to complete and install the work were raised yet in the end Rodin decidedly declined any bids for the work and kept the plaster artwork in his home at Meudon Monumental castsFrance Musee Rodin Paris at the crossroads of boulevard Raspail and boulevard du Montparnasse also known as carrefour Vavin in the 6th arrondissement of Paris since 1939 Germany in front of Kunsthaus Lempertz looking at de in Cologne since May 2022 Japan Hakone Open Air Museum Australia National Gallery of Victoria since 1968 See alsoList of sculptures by Auguste Rodin List of public art in Washington D C Ward 2References The Museum of Modern Art Retrieved 7 August 2008 Rodin Works Monument to Balzac Rodin Web org Retrieved 18 July 2010 Head of Balzac 1897 collection ackland org Retrieved 12 July 2019 Clarke Kenneth Civilisation 1969 Episode 12 The Fallacies of Hope Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 Retrieved 8 December 2020 via YouTube Gurney Tom 19 June 2020 Monument to Balzac by Auguste Rodin www thehistoryofart org Retrieved 6 August 2024 Lajos Egri The Art of Dramatic Writing Simon amp Schuster 2004 Final Study of the Monument to Balzac Retrieved 8 July 2010 Information Desk An Epic by Robyn Schiff www publishersweekly com Retrieved 6 August 2024 Morhardt Mathias 15 December 1934 La Bataille du Balzac Mercure de France pp 463 489 Collection Online Rodin Balzac National Gallery of Victoria Further readingChevillot Catherine Marraud Helene Pinet Helene Adamson John transl November 2014 Rodin The Laboratory of Creation Dijon Editions Faton ISBN 9782878442007 Le Normand Romain Antoinette September 2014 Rodin New York Abbeville ISBN 9780789212078 Miller Joan Vita 1986 Rodin the B Gerald Cantor Collection New York Metropolitan Museum of Art ISBN 9780870994432 External links Auguste Rodin Final Study of the Monument to Balzac 1984 364 15 In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History New York The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2000 http www metmuseum org toah hd rodn ho 1984 364 15 htm October 2006 Pensive Texts and Thinking Statues Balzac with Rodin Naomi Schor Critical Inquiry Vol 27 No 2 Winter 2001 pp 239 265 article consists of 27 pages Published by The University of Chicago Press Cladel Judith Rodin New York Hardcourt Brace and Company 1937 Print Brians Paul Naturalism and Realism 1 Mar 2006 Web lt http www wsu edu brians hum 303 naturalism html gt Tacha Spear Athena Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art Cleveland Ohio Cleveland Museum of Art 1967 Print Elsen Albert E In Rodin s Studio Oxford Phaidon Limited 1980 Print de Caso Jacques Rodin and the Cult of Balzac Vol 106 Burlington Magazine Publications 1964 Print Ser 735 Media related to Monument a Balzac by Auguste Rodin Musee Rodin at Wikimedia Commons Schor Naomi 2001 Pensive Texts and Thinking Statues Balzac with Rodin Critical Inquiry 27 2 239 265 ISSN 0093 1896
