Omaha daily bee., 1909-09-26

49," fUNNN eNAANAA9 VpNANu ~ eNNl view
Emotions and Beauty.
"Tere Is a historic story Of a woman
who was transformed in a moment by
the power OF a sublime feeling from a
commonplace person. one even ugly per-
haps "a the word is used, into a wonder
ful being. Her child was torn from her
and thrown to the lions and she went
unhesitatingly into the wild beasts den
to rescue IT. She had been a coward be-
fore, but she was a heroine then. and yet
she was the same woman. splendid. brave,
dominated by a noble sentiment. She
was the same woman and yet not the
same, for her moment. her great mo-
ment. had transformed her.
You will learn that the body is the
theater OF emotions, where the hand. the
foot. the face, the body have parts of
equal Importance to play. No one can
be ignored; no one can be said to be
greater than the other. You nave no
horror Of love, OF hate, Of revenge ex-
pressed by the face; why should you have
when the body expresses II as well7
The Supreme Being Is the only one
who can create. and He is the only one
who can finish. The end Of a work of
art is the relation merely that exists in
the artists mind between his idea and
his work. You can finish some work. 1t
is true, the commercial work whose value
lie expressed by a ten franc piece, a twenty
franc piece or a sou, but you must not
expect to see the work Of an artist fin
ished, for he never finishes It himself.
The old Greek statues, which have come to
US in . broken, unfinished state, are they
not the ones that have exercised the great
est influence on our art and our life?
What OF the Victory of Samothrace, the
Venus de Milo?
Morality n False Relation.
And there should be no argument in
regard to morality in art? There is no
morality in nature. Morality is a false
relation established by man. Frequently
to express some tremendous moment Of
action you will find it necessary to exag-
gerate the muscles of a certain part in
order clearly to define that intensity for
which you strive-that wonderful move
ment, greater than the plastic in art.
That exaggeration is natural, for It is
the exaggeration Of nature. So It may be
that in the symbolism Of impalpable SEN
timents you may seem to have exaggerated
the connection of ideas, and there will
be the outcry against an immoral art. In
truth you have followed nature"
Rodin refers indirectly to the criticism
which met the work OF his earlier manner
by saying: Every one who advances or
sees to a great distance will nave the honor
or humiliation, as you deem It, of being
misunderstood-the broken bits of plaster
thrown, the groups Of statuary defaced
with ink; they are good signs, as pain is
of the healing
You are thinking Of lie Penseur'' as he
unAala and ~ FnnnffAn a. NJ pnHfn
smiles as he wipes a bit Of clay from the
chisel.
About the thinker"
There are many even now who are
astonished at its athletic appearance" he
says. 81 still receive letters on the sub
ject. Thought is strong as well as serene.
One of my literary friends expressed it
long ago better than I can by saying that
the ideal thinker is neither a mystic nor
Of the nervous, over refined type. He is
a being OF static force and Of calm power,
in whose clear brain is reflected the
dream OF the world as a great tree is re-
Elected in the tranquil waters The
Thinker as every work of art should, is
an expression OF equilibrium
A question in regard to the value of
schooling causes NJ. Rodin to refer to his
early training.
THE first of my works to be publicly
exhibited, first refused by the Salon. was
The Man with the Broken Nose, Il homme
au nez casse), which according to the old
custom had the announcement that I was
a pupil Of Barge. 1t was exhibited at the
time when impressionism had shaker the
schools with the tremor OF an earthquake,
and It aroused a still greater revolt.
Barge believed that his pupils should
work without too many questions or sug-
gestlons. MY schooling with him was fol-
lowed by a sort OF apprenticeship with
Carrier Belleuse, whose method Of teach
ing was much the same. 1t is, incidentally,
that OF all great instructors, to urge the
pupil to follow his own inclinations and
always to study nature, to discover and
transcribe life"
His Earlier Works.
There were pany years when Rodin
worked at one thing after another; for the
decorations OF public buildings, notably the
Bourse in Brussels, at the Sevres manu-
factory. acquiring mobility Of expression,
facility OF touch and a universally of
subject, so that he could execute the
sketches Of a frieze of Oriental dancing
girls or conceive a Balzac. He speaks of
these years with a laconic word. 1T is
necessary to earn ones bread and to wait.
The moment will come II there is besides
the need Of food the eternal urge of pas
sion"
He refers again to one of his early works,
'~Jean-Baptiste," concerning which his
rivals alleged that he had modelled IT over
a veritable human body. He asks II any
one could ask for a greater compliment
81 insisted then that an examination
should be made Of the hundreds of
sketches I had drawn as preliminary he
saws. They were astonished at the
mlmitable labor and patience. See"-he
shows through the opened door thousands
OF faint outlines on the wall beyond;
heads. torsos, bits Of the body, profiles,
lines and curves-"all that is necessary;
the patience, the trial and the trial again
The John was not according to the
formula of the institute. He was not the
baptIzer nor the preacher. He was walk
ing freely and frankly with a simple GEES
ture to announce the good tidlngs, Tie
had the va-et-vient that the schools then
abhorred. They do not now.
ct have studied the antiques always, hut
l have also studied the work of the middle
ages. | essayed all. Nothing came to me
AZ once. The longer l work the more /
comprehend and the more l see to change
and improve. The earlier manner of youth
chances To that of maturity, mperceptibly.