Anne-Marie Bonnet: Auguste Rodin – Images of Desire – Erotic Watercolors and Cut-Outs

In the twilight of his career, when he had already established his eminence as a sculptor, Auguste Rodin turned almost obsessively to sketching the female form. These drawings were produced quickly, with the artists’ eyes following his models’ every move, his pen or pencil in constant contact with the paper. Rodin referred to these quickly executed sketches as his “one-minute drawings,” and he produced literally thousands of them in various media: India ink, gouache, watercolor, charcoal and pencil. This elegant volume includes over 100 drawings and cutouts beautifully reproduced in the warm and subtle tones of the original. The female form was vital to Rodin’s development as an artist and his interest in nudes resulted in works that veer distinctly away from the classic definition of the genre or from any idealized form. What Rodin was pursuing instead was the naturalness of the naked state, its lines and movement, its beauty and simplicity. Needless to say, these non-traditional poses were met with great trepidation even among his admirers, and caused a scandal during a 1906 exhibition. At the turn of the century sketches were viewed mainly as preparatory work, but Rodin’s drawings brought the genre to a new level. At once immediate and enduring, they provide a supremely intimate glimpse into his creative process and a window into his own soulful worship of the human body in motion.