Eve after the Fall
À propos de la sculpture
Auguste Rodin’s sculpture Eve owes its genesis to The Gates of Hell, the artist’s major commission from the French government in 1880. The associations posed by the sculptural portals of that project led Rodin back to the art of Lorenzo Ghiberti and Michelangelo, particularly their depiction of biblical stories from the book of Genesis. A number of elements from the Gates—such as The Thinker, Adam, and Eve—gradually evolved into independent works. In particular, Eve recalls the most sculptural of Renaissance paintings: Michelangelo’s panels from the Sistine Chapel Ceiling and Masaccio’s Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Its naturalism shocked critics when it was first exhibited, since Eve seemed to them more like a flesh-and-blood woman than an idealized creation.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Notice
Pendant ce temps, chez Auguste Rodin
La vie entièrec. 1880 – 1881
Juliette Adam's salon and first recognition
Rodin was received at the salon of the writer Juliette Adam, where he was presented to Gambetta; Gambetta recommended him to Antonin Proust, the minister of fine arts, who bought “St. John the Baptist” for the state. It was the first recognition to reach a sculptor who was already forty.
1881
London: meeting William Ernest Henley
Rodin's friend Alphonse Legros introduced him in London to the poet William Ernest Henley, who did more than anyone to win him a British audience. Through Henley Rodin met Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Browning.
1882
“St. John the Baptist” at the Royal Academy
A bust of St. John the Baptist, a version of the statue bought by the French government, was shown with success at the Royal Academy. A year earlier Henley, who had become editor of the Magazine of Art, had published several articles on Rodin there.
1883
Meets Camille Claudel
Standing in for Alfred Boucher, who was away, Rodin supervised his students' course and met the eighteen-year-old Camille Claudel. She became his assistant, model, lover and creative rival.
1884
Commission for “The Burghers of Calais”
Rodin pursued the commission for a monument to the town of Calais, but instead of a lone hero, Eustache de Saint-Pierre, he conceived six citizens, each with his own emotions. A year later the committee was unimpressed with his progress; Rodin was ready to abandon the project rather than change his design, and the town told him to carry on.
