Rodin's Egypt

 Rodin's Egypt

Rodin’s Egypt presents the master French sculptor Auguste Rodin’s (1840–1917) fascination with ancient Egypt through the Egyptian artifacts he collected and his own sculptures inspired by them. Celebrated as one of the founders of modern European sculpture, Rodin crafted expressive bodies that abandoned narrative and embraced the subject and materiality of the medium. While his approach to the human form was revolutionary, he revered the works of antiquity, in which he saw the truest expressions of nature.

However, it was by Egypt more than anything else that Rodin became particularly enthralled, and he amassed a sizable collection of Egyptian objects.

Here you can delve further into Rodin’s Egypt and learn more about the themes, objects, and characters of the exhibition. How did Rodin acquire his Egyptian collection and from whom? Why were Egyptian antiquities—and fakes based on them—being sold in Paris and New York City? What did the ancient Egyptians believe about the nature of the human body?