While considered one of the greatest sculptors
of all time, Auguste Rodin discovered his
passion for art through illustration. Legend
has it that as a young boy he would spend
hours copying pages from illustrated books
that his mother's grocer used as paper wrappings.
At the height of his glory in the late
1890s Rodin turned to two of his greatest
obsessions—sketching and the nude figure—
and developed an extensive series of erotic
drawings. "They should become a part of
me," he once said of his models. "My purpose
is to test to what degree my hands can
already feel what my eyes are seeing." Going
well beyond their singular erotic quality, however,
they are expressions of the artist's
advanced eye, astounding skill, and revolutionary
experimentations. This extraordinary
show, presenting hundreds of drawings created
between 1890-1917, is the result of the
rediscovery of Rodin's graphic work.

Rodin Museum
Rodin: Figures of Eros
November 22, 2006 through March 18, 2007
77 rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris
T. + 33 (0) 1 44 18 61 10