Due to the technological advances of the nineteenth century, an abundance of black drawing media exploded onto the market. Charcoal, conte crayon, and fabricated black chalks and crayons; fixatives; various papers; and many lifting devices gave rise to an unprecedented amount of experimentation. Indeed, innovation became the rule, as artists developed their own unique--and often experimental--processes. The exploration of black media in drawing is inextricably bound up with the exploration of black in prints, and this volume presents an integrated study that rises above specialization in one over the other.   Noir brings together such diverse artists as Francisco de Goya, Maxime Lalanne, Gustave Courbet, Odilon Redon, and Georges Seurat and explores their inventive works on paper. Sidelining labels like "conservative" or "avant-garde," the essays in this book employ all the tools that art history and modern conservation have given us, inviting the reader to look more broadly at the artists' methods and materials.

Degas, Pissarro, Cassatt, Renoir, Morisot, Bracquemond, Manet, Whistler--these and other Impressionist painters often experimented with printmaking techniques, producing black and white etchings, aquatints, dry points, and color lithographs that exhibited the same easy yet subtle attraction that makes their oil paintings so beloved. In this beautiful book, an eminent authority examines the prints of these painter-printmakers, providing a new understanding of Impressionism and of contemporary printmaking. Drawing on discoveries of the last two decades and on his own research, Michel Melot locates the sources and influences of the prints and analyzes their techniques--particularly in monotypes and embossed prints. In so doing he reveals the close ties between the Impressionist movement and the rebirth of artists' prints in the second half of the nineteenth century. His analysis of the relations among artists, the art market, art criticism, collectors, and political institutions makes Impressionism appear less like a miracle and more a response to the social and economic upheavals of the nineteenth century.

From the "black" drawings contemporaneous with the Gates of Hell to his great watercolor nudes, this book reproduces hundreds of Auguste Rodin's most beautiful graphic works held in the collection of the Musée Rodin, a number of which are published here for the first time. The accompanying essays analyze the complex relationships between Rodin's drawings and his sculptures, the problems of attribution, and the role of sensuality in his work.Rodin's rich graphic oeuvre has until now been a little-known aspect of his art, yet it is crucial to a full understanding of his work. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in the great sculptor's achievements.

Rodin's discourse on the erotic is considered in this book, accompanied by black and white photographs of each sculptural piece, taken from multiple angles, to highlight selective details.

This reference/catalogue, written by the late Dr. Elsen, encompasses a lifetime's thoughts on Rodin's career, surveying the artist's accomplishments through the detailed discussion of each object in the collection. It begins with essays on the formation of the collection, the reception of Rodin's work, and his casting techniques.

In essays as revealing of their author as they are of their subject, Rilke examines Rodin's life and work, and explains the often elusive connection between the creative forces that drive great literature and art.

Traces the development of the artistic techniques and subjects of Auguste Rodin and examines the cross-fertilization between his drawing and sculpture.

The greatest sculptor of the nineteenth century discusses his philosophy of life with a close friend in this fascinating and informative artistic testament. Auguste Rodin spoke candidly to his protégé, Paul Gsell, who recorded the master's thoughts not only about the technical secrets of his craft, but also about its aesthetic and philosophical underpinnings. Here is the real Rodin--relaxed, intimate, open, and charming--offering a wealth of observations on the relationship of sculpture to poetry, painting, theater, and music. He also makes perceptive comments on Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Raphael, and other great artists, and he shares revealing anecdotes about Hugo, Balzac, and others who posed for him. Seventy-six superb illustrations of the sculptor's works complement the text, including St John the Baptist Preaching, The Burghers of Calais, The Thinker, and many others, along with a selection of exuberant drawings and prints.

Rodin, famous for 'The thinker' and 'The kiss', was captivated by the sculptures of Classical antiquity and he constantly reworked and assimilated the forms of ancient Greek and Roman art in his own work. Rodin visited the British Museum for the first time in the summer of 1881 and there greatly admired the sculptures of the Parthenon. Before he saw the originals, he was already acquainted with plaster casts of them displayed in the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris. The Parthenon sculptures continued to be a major influence on his own work and he visited them frequently on his return visits to London. He also amassed a huge collection of fragments of ancient sculpture that served as a source of inspiration.

During his lifetime, Auguste Rodin's name became synonymous with modern sculpture. It aslo became linked with sex. Rodin came to emphasize the importance of desire and the sexual as the markers of his individual perspective, using them to fuel his increasingly daring treatments of the nude. Bodily passion became the primary means through which he sought to make sculpture evocative, expressive, and universally appealing. The author examines these developments by focusing on two pivotal moments in Rodin's career: first, 1876, the year his work is catalyzed through an engagement with Michelangelo; and, second, 1900, the year of the one-person exhibition that catapulted him to international public notoriety.