With Rodin. Free Drawings, the Musée Rodin offers an essential, almost confidential exhibition that reveals a still little-known facet of Auguste Rodin. Far from the monumental sculptures that made his worldwide fame, this exhibition highlights a more secret, more instinctive work: drawing as a space of absolute freedom.
Presented in the heart of one of Paris's most emblematic museums, this temporary exhibition invites the public to discover Rodin differently—not just as a sculptor, but as a bold draftsman, experimental and resolutely modern.
The Musée Rodin, setting for an intimate exhibition
Housed in the Hôtel Biron, the Musée Rodin is renowned for its exceptional permanent collections dedicated to the sculptor. With Free Drawings, the museum offers a more intimate reading of the work, by highlighting sheets rarely shown to the general public.
This exhibition fully aligns with the museum's mission: to deepen understanding of the artist through demanding, educational, and accessible temporary exhibitions. Here, the visitor leaves the gardens and iconic sculptures to enter a quieter space, conducive to observation and contemplation.
Drawing in Rodin: a creative laboratory
Contrary to a common misconception, drawing is not for Rodin a mere preparatory tool. In Free Drawings, it appears as an autonomous territory of experimentation, a space where the gesture precedes the sculpted form.
Rodin draws quickly, without academic constraints, often without lifting his hand. The line is fluid, sometimes almost abstract. He captures movement more than detail, the tension of the body rather than its precise anatomical description.
These drawings reveal:
- total formal freedom,
- an instinctive relationship with the body,
- a constant search for movement,
- striking modernity for the late 19th century.
Bodies in motion, freed from conventions
At the heart of the exhibition, the human body holds a central place. But it is never about frozen poses. The figures drawn by Rodin seem captured in a fleeting moment, as if the paper had caught a breath, a movement, a muscular tension.
The bodies fragment, overlap, sometimes distort. Rodin does not seek academic perfection: he explores energy, imbalance, momentum. This approach echoes his sculptural research, but drawing allows him even greater freedom.
In these sheets, the visitor perceives a deeply modern Rodin, almost contemporary in his way of thinking about the body.
The role of the model and improvisation
The exhibition also shows the importance of the live model in Rodin's work. Contrary to strict academic practices, he often encouraged his models to move freely, without imposed poses.
Rodin would then draw without seeking to correct, accepting imperfection, the unfinished. This process gives birth to vibrant works, where the gesture takes precedence over the final result.
Drawing thus becomes:
- a space of freedom,
- a field of improvisation,
- a direct dialogue between the eye, the hand, and movement.
A sober scenography in service of the works
The scenography of Free Drawings favors sobriety. The works are presented with measured lighting, promoting careful reading of the line, the stroke, the paper.
The itinerary invites slowing down. Each room allows observation of the diversity of techniques used by Rodin: pencil, ink, light watercolor. Some sheets show color additions, almost accidental, which reinforce the experimental dimension of the drawing.
This spatial arrangement respects the intimacy of the works and enhances their expressive power.
A Rodin far from clichés
This exhibition deconstructs the fixed image of the academic Rodin. It reveals a curious, bold, sometimes transgressive artist. His drawings, long considered secondary, appear here as a fundamental field of research.
We discover a Rodin:
- attentive to movement,
- freed from academic rules,
- close to the avant-gardes of the 20th century,
- in dialogue with very current issues on the body and representation.
Drawing and sculpture: a constant dialogue
If Free Drawings focuses on drawing, the exhibition constantly recalls the close link between this medium and sculpture. The drawings are not frozen sketches, but reservoirs of forms, matrices of gestures that Rodin will reuse or transform in his sculptures.
The visitor thus understands that sculpture in Rodin often arises from a free, intuitive, almost instinctive drawing. The paper becomes a space where the artist tests, dares, invents.
An exhibition accessible to all audiences
One of the great assets of Rodin. Free Drawings is its accessibility. The exhibition addresses:
- art history enthusiasts,
- students,
- drawing enthusiasts,
- but also visitors discovering Rodin for the first time.
The wall texts are clear, educational, without ever weighing down the reading. They guide the gaze without imposing it, allowing each person to build their own interpretation.
Why see Rodin. Free Drawings at the Musée Rodin
✔️ To discover a little-known facet of Rodin
✔️ To understand the central role of drawing in his work
✔️ To observe astonishing modernity
✔️ To experience an intimate exhibition in the heart of Paris
✔️ To cast a new gaze on a master of fine arts
Practical information
📍 Venue: Musée Rodin, Paris
🖼 Exhibition: Rodin. Free Drawings
📅 Dates: until March 1
Conclusion: an essential exhibition to rediscover Rodin
With Free Drawings, the Musée Rodin offers much more than a drawing exhibition. It provides an immersion into the creative process of a major artist, revealing a freedom of gesture and thought that is surprisingly contemporary.
This exhibition reminds us that Rodin was not only a sculptor of monuments, but also a seeker of forms, an experimenter, a deeply free artist. An unmissable exhibition to understand the man behind the genius.
