Balzac by Rodin

Balzac was born 20. Mai 1799 in Tours; and died on 18. August 1850 in Paris. It is not known when Rodin started to focus on Balzac as a prime subject to be studied from various angles. In this process of maturation, Rodin had discovered the importance of the surface, but also what a gesture or even just the position of the head could mean. Post modernists would replace the meaning with signification, but this is right now not of importance. Rather Rodin varied Balzac. Sometimes he created just a torso, at other times he stood there without coat as if someone who had forgotten that it is cold in the streets of Paris. Definitely Balzac for Rodin was before anything else a thinker in the truest sense of the word. Hence it mattered how this translated into the various phases of thought. When deep in thoughts, the head would be bend down and the eyes vaguely seeing the ground only. Had some vision come into the head to know what lies ahead or else what to strive for, the head would be upright and the eyes looking ahead and beyond the present. Once inspiration caught him almost unexpectedly, his eyes lifted to the sky and his head was thrown back into the neck. When walking through the Rodin museum in Paris, all of these positions can be experienced directly. It will allow for a reconstruction of the path Rodin took to arrive finally at the sculpture as portrayed in the image above.

Hatto Fischer

27.1.2017

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Balzac by Rodin