Rodin - Monique Laurent

When Auguste Rodin died in 1917, there was an extraordinary outburst of sentiment throughout the world, comparable with the death of great statesmen like de Gaulle or Churchill. He had become a national and an international hero. Born in Paris in 1840, in relatively humble circumstances, he achieved greatness through the exercise, over long life, of a prodigious talent. As an exact contemporary of Claude Monet, he inhabited the world of the Impressionists. But he followed a different path, combining his pursuit of the ideals of classical sculpture with an astonishingly sensuous individualism.;This book introduces the reader to Rodin the man, to the world in which he lived and worked, to his contemporaries in the field of art and to his passionate relations with women.;Monique Laurent is the former Keeper of the Rodin Museum in Paris. She has held senior posts in most of the major museums in France, as well as being Professor of the History of Art at the Ecole du Louvre.