'The Eternal Thinker'

Two of Auguste Rodin's most famous works The Kiss (top) and The Thinker are on display at the National Museum of China on November 27. Photos: Xiong Yuqing/GT

Although it may be the highest priced exhibit at the National Museum of China (NMC) at 50 yuan ($8) per ticket, The Eternal Thinker: Retrospective of Rodin's Sculpture Art is without a doubt one of the must-see exhibitions this year. Featuring 139 works selected from the Musée Rodin in Paris, including 61 rare plaster works seldom seen outside the museum in France, the exhibit takes visitors on a tour of the life of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), the man considered as the greatest sculptor of the 19th century and creator of one of the most well-known sculptures in the world: The Thinker.

"We chose Le Penseur (The Thinker) to be the cover of this exhibition as it is representative of French culture. It was also used as an icon when the Rome Convention was signed," said Catherine Chevillot, the director of the Musée Rodin in Paris, at the opening for the exhibition on November 27.

"Rodin was attracted by Chinese culture when he was alive. He had Chinese objects in his own collection. If he was still alive, I think he would very much like to come to China."

Separated into four parts according to the different period in Rodin's life, the exhibition makes good use of giant photos hanging on walls to make it seem that the sculptures on display are surrounded by an outdoor landscape, just like they were originally displayed back in France.

"We hope visitors can review the entire life and art work of the artist through this exhibition," Helene Marraud, the exhibition's curator, told the Global Times.

Hard road to success

The second child of a working-class family, Rodin formally learned to paint and draw when he attended Petite école, a school specializing in art and mathematics, at age 14. After graduation, he failed on three separate occasions to pass the examination to école des Beaux-Arts, one of the most influential fine arts schools in France, leading him to work as a craftsman. During this early period, he sold several sculptures, some of these sculptures of women can be seen during the first part of exhibition. In 1875, he traveled to Italy, where he was shocked by the work of classical artist Michelangelo (1475-1564).

Things started to change in 1877, when his first full-scale plaster sculpture L'age d'airain (The Age of Bronze) was displayed during a salon. The life-size figure was so similar to the real body of his model, a Belgian soldier, that he was suspected using the real human body to make the mold. Although making the artist somewhat controversial, it also helped make him an artist of high repute. Three years later, Rodin received a commission from the French Government to create a bronze version of L'age d'airain, which is now displayed at the exhibition.

The same year, Rodin was commissioned to create The Gates of Hell by the Directorate of Fine Arts for a planned decorative arts museum. The inspiration for the work came from a scene from the first section of "The Inferno" from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.

The gate contains 180 figures, including the very famous The Thinker and The Kiss. The artist worked on this gate until his death in 1917, never actually completing the work. Although the decorative arts museum was never built, this work became one of the most important works in the artist's life.

While the exhibition was unable to bring the huge bronze gate to Beijing, other sculptures of the individual figures that make up part of the gate were brought over, such as The Thinker (one original sized bronze and one large sized plaster version), The Kiss (large sized marble),The Three Shades, Fleeting Love and Ugolino and His Children.

This presents a great opportunity for visitors to see the delicate details of these works up-close. A large sized photo of the original The Gates of Hell has been hung on one of the walls so visitors can see how these figures come together as a whole in the original work.

A closer look

In addition to providing viewers a chance to see these works face to face, the exhibition also delves into the private life of the artist so that visitors may gain a deeper understanding of Rodin's evolution as an artist.

A figure of one of Rodin's lovers, Camille Claudel, can be seen on display. Here visitors can see how the artist carefully carved the face of his lover, and how he used her as an inspiration for his other works, such as La France and The Convalescent.

Other figures include monuments of Balzac and Victor Hugo. The exhibition also has some of the first attempts at some of these sculptures and demonstrate how the final versions came to be.

"Rodin is a household name in China, and has impacted generations of Chinese artists. I also learned a lot from him. When I became one of the first university students to go to college after the resumption of the college entrance examinations, the first wave of Western thought I was introduced to included Rodin's artworks," Chen Lüsheng, a deputy curator at the National Museum of China, said during the opening.

"Rodin's works have been displayed in Japan, the US and other countries, and are very popular around the world. I am so moved that although about 100 years have passed, Rodin still has such a great influence among people of different ages and living in different cultures," said Chevillot.

The exhibition is scheduled to run until March 22.