Evening star., 1940-11-10

a little design involving nine cupids
and few signs of the zodiac: Les
Amours Conduisant le Monde" and
was so pleased with his rapid mas
terry of the medium that in the
next few years, he made about a
dozen drypoints. The dryposnt in
the Division of Graphic Arts is a
print Of the first plate.
Father Opposed Art.
Rodin was born in Paris Of
humble parents, who endeavored
to give him good education. first
at a school in their locality. and
later, at considerable financial sac
rifice, sent him to a school in
Beauvais, superintended by his
uncle. He was a dull student, but
fond of drawing, and when IA, re-
turned to Paris and entered free
drawing school. His father, running
true to traditional paternal be-
havior. opposed art as a career.
Artists are idlers and good-for-
nothings," he is reported to have
said, but young Rodin paid no at
tention. He attended lectures by
the great French Sculptor Barye
(many of whose animal sculptures
are in the Corcoran Gallery, who
had a profound influence on the
lad because of Barye's emphasis
on the importance of studying ma
ture.
Distasteful employment to earn
his living, and early rebuffs from
the Beaux-Arts, to which he sought
admission several times, and service
in the National Guard during the
Franco-Prussian war, were among
the difficulties of his first 80 years.
His struggle with the Institute and
the Academicians, whom he re-
garded as the enemies of original
talent, lasted throughout his life.
Two other lasting influences on
Robins art were his acquaintance
with the work of Michelangelo dur
ing a visit to Italy in 1875. and
study of French Gothic Cathedrals.
Tempestuous Life.
Robins life was tempestuous. He
had bitter enemies and staunch
friends on his climb to fame. 1t
is sad to recall that powerful OPP
ponents prevented his obtaining
state commissions which represent
ed success to an artist of that
period Ito say nothing of the monu-
ments he might have left to poster
ity). 1t is gratifying to realize that
great contemporaries recognized his
genius Monet, for instance (con-
corning whom an article appeared
in this column last Augus) wrote
a preface to a catalogue of a large
exhibition which Rodin held of his
own work. during the Paris Exposi-
ton of 1900, saying in part: Il am
anxious to express my deep admira-
ton for this extraordinary man,
this great man among the greatest"
Despite the tumult of his affairs,
Rodin enjoyed a large measure of
triumph. At the end of the CEN
tury he was at the height of his
fame. Journalists besieged him for
interviews, visitors from many
countries crowded his studio: and
not few of them we're willing to
pay any price he asked to do a
portrait bust.
But the World War made his last
years tragic. His workmen were
all modified, he was aghast at
German destruction of Rheims
Cathedral and other transcendent
works of art, and feared the i'm
minent invasion of the German.
Army and bomb destruction of his
own life's work
When Miss Mechlin was editor
of Art and Progress" (now the
Magazine of Art'O she received
from Rodin, through a friend for
publication, the following message:
"I wish to send greetings to
all my friends in America. and to
express my profound gratitude for
their sympathetic appreciation Of
my art; 1t has been a great en-
couragement to me. I sincerely ad-
mire your young country, which
possesses a veritable thirst for the
beautiful, and which will in time
grasp and comprehend all that is
greatest in art"