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Auguste Rodin - RLS Website |
 Auguste Rodin Licensed by Creative Commons"How I wish I could have my child's soul and fairy religion of yore to uphold me! My dear friend, I envy you if you have still your pen at the service of your thoughts. . . I congratulate you (on your book). We have the misfortunes that come with age; but you have compensations; and the respect shown to you by your younger contemporaries who accept your advice is no common thing. Good-bye, my dear great friend Affectionately yours, RODIN.
P.S. - And our friend Stevenson who was so dear, also lost on the way, leaving only his glorious name!"
(Auguste Rodin in a letter to W.E. Henley, 4 November 1898, from The Life and Works of Auguste Rodin by Frederick Lawton [London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1906], p. 207).
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was a French sculptor and friend to RLS. RLS first met Rodin when he and Fanny were visiting Will H. Low in Paris in August 1886. W.E. Henley, who was also in Paris at the time, introduced them. The two became friends, exchanging letters in French.
Rodin admired Stevenson’s Treasure Island (1883) and “The Suicide Club” (1878) and Stevenson believed in Rodin’s sculpting genius. RLS also wrote a letter defending this genius to The Times on 6 September 1886. Edward Armitage (1817-1896) had written to say that a sculpture of Rodin’s had been rejected from the Royal Academy because it was a bad piece of art. Stevenson replied:
“The public are weary of statues that say nothing. Well, here is a man coming forward whose statues live and speak, and speak things worth uttering. Give him time, spare him nicknames and the cant of cliques, and I venture to predict this man will take a place in the public heart” (The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson, ed. by Bradford A. Booth and Ernest Mehew, vol v [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1995], p. 312).
In December 1886, RLS wrote to Rodin to tell him that his sculpture, “Le Printemps” had arrived at Skerryvore. Unfortunately it arrived with a broken arm and had to be repaired. It was later inscribed with the words “A R.L. Stevenson, au sympathique artiste, fidele ami, et cher poete, Rodin”.
Rodin is perhaps one of the world’s best-known sculptors. He is famous for pieces like “The Thinker”, “The Kiss” and “The Three Shades”. During his own time, his work often caused controversy, departing from the accepted modes of art of the late Victorian period. He is now considered to be one of the founders of modern sculpture.
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