Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is the only sculptor who is of equal rank to the French painters of the 'Great Generation' from Manet to Cezanne. But while he has been considered an early modernist
among sculptors, he drew on a rich variety of artistic traditions, including those of ancient Greece, the Renaissance, Egypt and the Far East. He was the creator of a new form in sculpture, the
fragment as a finished work, usually a head and trunk, sometimes a pair of hands only. Rodin is renowned for his expression of emotion and movement and his use of symbolism and distortion. In
1913 the artist described his pictorial approach to sculpting saying: 'I place the model in such a way that it stands out against the background and so that the light falls on this profile. I
execute it, and turn both my turn-table and that of the model so that I can see another profile. Then I turn them again and gradually work my way round the figure.' Gathered here is a stunning
collection of photographs, all newly reproduced for this edition, of Rodin's masterpieces - from the impressive shape of The Thinker, to the powerfully melancholy group of The Burghers of
Calais and some of the most outstanding portrait busts of this century, among them Rose Beuret, Madame de Goloubeff, Victor Hugo and Gustav Mahler.
