Auguste Rodin’s Birthday Nov 12

Auguste Rodin’s Birthday

🎂  November 12  🍰

It was particularly daunting to tackle this incredible sculptor in a doodle. However, the essence of the project lay in the way Rodin approached his work. 
Amongst many of his attributes he was able to work rapidly and instinctively, using his immense anatomical knowledge as a platform for expressiveness.

We did not want to simply study a photograph, so we set out to draw his sculptures and dissect the results back at the studio. Although eventually using one of his most recognizable pieces with The Thinker, we were glad of the opportunity to capture his work onsite.

Sculpture is extraordinary in the sense that it does not “give you the line” as opposed to illustration, so we were forced to sculpt form with our pencils. 
Attached are concepts and studies made onsite together with ideas for final execution:

https://www.google.com/doodles/auguste-rodins-172nd-birthday

Rodin - The Thinker

 The Thinker (French: Le Penseur) is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, usually placed on a stone pedestal. The work shows a nude male figure of heroic size sitting on a rock with his chin resting on one hand as though deep in thought, often used as an image to represent philosophy. 

There are about 28 full-sized castings, in which the figure is about 186 cm high, though not all were made during Rodin's lifetime and under his supervision. 

There are various other versions, several in plaster, and studies and posthumous castings exist in a range of sizes. 

Rodin first conceived the figure as part of his work The Gates of Hell commissioned in 1880, but the first of the familiar monumental bronze castings did not appear until 1904.

Naissance    12 novembre 1840 Paris
Décès            17 novembre 1917 (à 77 ans) Meudon
Nom de naissance  René François Auguste Rodin
Nationalité  Français
Activités Sculpteur, graveur, dessinateur, photographe
Formation     École Spéciale de Dessin et de Mathématiques, dite la Petite École (École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs)
Influencé par  Michel-Ange, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux