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BREAKING THE MOLD: SCULPTURE IN PARIS FROM DAUMIER TO RODIN By Phillip Dennis Cate Phillip Dennis Cate he sculptor, the man who gives, even outside next decade in addition to writing an extensive histo- of all literary considerations, the plastic rep- ry of caricature from ancient times to his own, resentation of a human face but who does Alexandre authored the first definitive critical studies T and biographies of Honoré Daumier (1808–1879); the not want to make simply a ‘photo-sculpture’,has no other means at his disposal than to underline the great Romantic sculptor of animals, Antoine-Louis primary characteristics of the face: for example of Barye (1795–1875); and the sculptor/ceramist Jean pushing forward the lips in a mocking fold indicat- Carriès (1855–1894).4 ing a satirical expression, of accentuating the arch of Alexandre’s respect for innovative contemporary the eyebrow and of enlarging the eye sockets so that artists and his deep appreciation of the role of humor the resulting shadows express reflection and obser- in art, particularly that of satire and caricature à la vation and finally to exaggerate the jutting and Daumier, were put into practice on a weekly basis dimension of the forehead in order to underline the through his involvement with Le Rire. Co-founded by creative faculty. This is precisely what Mr. Rodin has Alexandre and Félix Juven in November 1894, Le Rire done with the head of his Balzac.1 was an immensely popular satirical journal profusely —Arsène Alexandre, art critic, 1898 illustrated in color and black and white after draw- ings by such artists as Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen (1859–1923), Félix Vallotton (1865–1925), Henri de The Committee of the Société des Gens de Lettres Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901), Charles Léandre regrets that it has the duty to protest against the (1862–1930), Adolphe Willette (1857–1926), and sketch exhibited at the Salon by M. Rodin, in which many other mostly emerging young artists. By the it refuses to recognize the statue of Balzac.2 end of the decade with his unique background as his- —Société des Gens de Lettres, 1898 torian and art critic, Alexandre proved with his elo- quent defense of Rodin’s Balzac (1897) to be one of the most enlightened and effective advocates of mod- The vocal and often heated response to Auguste ern tendencies in French sculpture. Rodin’s (1840–1917) Monument to Balzac (Fig. 17) marked the coming-of-age of critical evaluation of Our account of Balzac begins in 1888. That year, a modern sculpture. Arsène Alexandre was one of the committee of the Société des Gens de Lettres com- most astute observers and defenders of French con- missioned Henri Chapu (1833–1891) to create a pub- temporary art at the turn of the twentieth century. In lic sculpture of the society’s first president, Honoré 1886, upon seeing Georges Seurat’s (1859–1891) Balzac (1799–1850), following its rejection of the Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte at proposal of Anatole Marquet de Vasselot (1840–1904; the eighth and final Impressionist exhibition, Fig. 18). Chapu died in 1891 without having com- Alexandre became one of the earliest supporters of pleted the project. Later that year after rejecting a 17 Auguste Rodin Monument to Balzac, 1897, the group of artists that his colleague Félix Fénéon new proposal by Marquet de Vasselot, the committee, Plaster, 275 x 121 x 132 cm, that year dubbed “neo-impressionists.”3 Within the which now included the society’s current president, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, 20 Réunion des Musées 21 Nationaux/Art Resource, NY 17 Breaking the Mold the Breaking : Phillip Dennis Cate article on art for the two-volume Histoire de la IIIe 18 Anatole Marquet de Vasselot République is packed with venomous phrases condemn- Honoré de Balzac, 1888, 19 ing the French state and the Academy of Fine Arts: Terracotta, ZAM 19 Auguste Rodin Not only, in effect, did it not encourage, sup- Large Head of Balzac, 1897, Emile Zola, selected Rodin to undertake the commis- port or employ any of the independently- Plaster, Olson and Johnson 20 21 Private Collection sion (Fig. 19). When Rodin finally unveiled the plas- minded artists who are nowadays the glory ter model for Balzac at the 1898 Salon of the Société 20 Pierre-Jean David d’Angers inspiration. Formally, creators of modern sculpture considerations, the plastic representation of a human of the French Academy, but, in reserving all Nationale des Beaux-Arts, the committee refused to Portrait of Goethe, 1829, sought to “establish a harmony among the basic lines face but who does not want to make simply a ‘photo- of its favors, purchases, orders and honors Plaster, 83 x 58 x 51 cm, accept it on the grounds that it was an ébauche,or sculpture’, has no other means at his disposal than to for the representatives of the worst academic Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and planes” of a scepter.5 They rejected verisimilitude Réunion des Musées sketch, and not physically recognizable as a likeness of and anecdotal details (“material resemblance”6) in underline the primary characteristics of the face.” traditions, it has also contributed to making Nationaux/Art Resource, NY the great French author. the task of these independently-minded favor of “simplification” and “deformation” in order The state’s rejection of Rodin’s Balzac outraged 21 Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux artists more arduous and to hampering their Bust of Alexandre Dumas Fils, Alexandre immediately responded to the committee’s to “accentuate” the essential character of the work of another insightful fin-de-siècle writer on French con- chances of success. 1873, Plaster, Diamond decision with his brochure Le Balzac de Rodin,in art or, in the case of portraiture, that of the individ- temporary art, Gabriel Mourey (1865–1943).7 Private Collection which the critic clearly presented his views on the ual depicted. Mourey was a poet, playwright, art critic, associate of What is more disconcerting still is that in advanced and positive qualities of the piece. Rodin completed a number of casts of his dramatic Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–1898) and Claude Debussy the realm of art, the republican regime According to Alexandre, Rodin followed in “the great over-life-size head of Balzac in plaster and, in collab- (1862–1918), and the director of the journal Les Arts which claims to be independent, to love French tradition” of Medieval art, always seeking “the oration with Paul Jeanneney (1861–1920), in colored de la vie in the 1890s and the early years of the twen- progress, liberty...etc., etc., has exercised and freedom of movement and the accentuation of char- enameled stoneware. The decapitated large white tieth century. To compensate for this loss, Mourey in continues to exercise as much mistrust of acter which entails the robust and logical layout of plaster Balzac head should be seen within the context 1904 successfully “organized the international sub- the modern spirit with regard to art. No, the planes combined with a very simple and sometimes of the nineteenth-century practice of creating power- scription that permitted The Thinker to be offered to Third Republic has no right to claim to have rough execution.” As he further noted, such qualities ful, isolated “head portraits,” either complete in the ‘Peuple de Paris.’”8 Two years later, The Thinker— recognized French art. None? Let us cry it of simplification were not “new” in the history of art, themselves or isolated from bodies, that began with one of the leading components of Rodin’s unfinished out. None.9 but could be found throughout the masterpieces of Pierre-Jean David d’Angers’s (1788–1856) impressive opus, The Gates of Hell—was publicly erected two early Egyptian, Greek, Cambodian, Medieval, and With respect to sculpture in particular, Mourey 1829 head of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Fig. 20), years later in front of the Paris Panthéon; in 1922, it Japanese sculpture. complained of François Rude’s (1784–1855) mid-1830s heads of the was relocated to what is now the Musée Rodin in The thousands and thousands of statues that Alexandre’s defense of Balzac had significant implica- Gaulois and the Marseillaise for the Arc de Triomphe, Paris. Thirty-five years after the Balzac furor, populate the avenues, crossroads, squares, tions beyond that work itself. The text simultaneously and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux’s (1827–1875) Portrait of Mourey’s great contempt for the Third Republic’s pre- and gardens of Paris... the list of busts giving vilified and challenged traditional academic stan- Alexandre Dumas Fils (1873; Fig. 21), and concluded sumed lack of support for “independent artists” was 22 the impression of having been playfully 23 dards and definitions of art while at the same time with Leonetto Cappiello’s (1875–1942) head of the unrelenting. Greatly overlooking the fact that Rodin massacred, of statues of hardened lard, of enunciating the basic elements of modern sculpture: café-concert performer Charles Brasseur (1898, was a privileged artist whom the French state com- nudist apotheoses made from chocolate and the simplification and distortion of forms and the Carnavalet Museum, Paris). As Alexandre stated: “The missioned to create The Gates of Hell and that the sugared candy, of muses, of victories, of genii, use of non-classical and/or non-Western sources of sculptor, the man who gives, even outside of all literary state also acquired many of Rodin’s sculptures begin- 18 ning with The Age of Bronze in 1880, Mourey’s 1933 of objects of love, of unclothed ladies, of allegories, of symbols gesticulating around day attire, the Daumier busts are neither allegorical, 22 Honoré Daumier The Legislative Belly, 1834, effigies, of the more or less great men of didactic, nor idealized (Fig.