Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

August Rodin was one of the foremost sculptors of the modern age, influencing every sculptor who came after him. This handsome book by Catherine Lampert offers new insights into the creative processes of this great French artist. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Library Journal Review

``His art showed a radical absence of decorum,'' states Lampert in this combined monograph and catalog of a recent exhibit of Auguste Rodin's sculpture and drawings at the Hayward Gallery, London. Generally acknowledged the foremost sculptor of the 19th century, Rodin had enormous influence on all who followed him. Lampert, who considers some of the artist's line drawings and gouaches to be among the ``finest and most quintessentially sculptural works on paper ever made,'' here concentrates on the ``cross-fertilization between his drawing and sculpture.'' The book includes informative data on the 270 entries in the show. There are 400 illustrations, including some photographs never before reproduced. An enlightening one-page article on Rodin and photography ends the catalog. Required reading for Rodin specialists. Gloria K. Rensch, formerly with Vigo Cty. P.L., Terre Haute, Ind. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

This quality addition to the cataloging and interpretation of the art of Auguste Rodin treats the creative impulses of the artist's work in a thorough and scholarly manner. Citing many examples never before published, Lampert focuses on the realism in Rodin's sculptures and drawings. The controversial nature of the late studio drawings, hitherto regarded as merely the sexual obsessions of an aging artist, appear in the light of Rodin's unceasing investigation of human motivations and reveal Rodin, once and for all, as a master draftsman of the foreshortened figure. Most drawings are three-minute sketches that do not suffer from the fussiness that characterizes ``respectable'' 19th-century drawing. The 1890s drawings emerge as riveting, evocative correlations with the literature of Baudelaire and Flaubert. Lampert makes associations with the French Romanticist painters as well. Rodin's early sketches, many related to The Gates of Hell, will appear fresh to most readers and, like the drawings, will doubtlessly trigger future psychoanalytic dissections. They speak of Rodin's mighty preoccupation with female sensuality that occasionally borders on vulgarity but, more importantly, they provide new evidence of the overwhelming power of this artist. What Lampert writes stems from impeccable research and insight; how she writes turns scholarly observations to adventure. Highly recommended.-P.N. Holder, Austin Peay State University