Auguste Rodin
Father of modern sculpture, The Thinker
Most quoted
"The artist must be a seer, a visionary, a poet, a dreamer, a philosopher, a scientist, a craftsman, a worker, a man of the world, a man of solitude, a man of action, a man of contemplation, a man of passion, a man of reason, a man of faith, a man of doubt, a man of joy, a man of sorrow, a man of life, a man of death."
— from Various writings
"The artist is the confidant of nature, flowers carry on dialogues with him through the graceful bending of their stems and the harmoniously tinted nuances of their blossoms. Every flower has a cordial word which nature directs towards him."
— from Art, 1911
"It is a mistake to think that the art of the Greeks depended on the beauty of the human form. What they sought was the expression of the soul, and this is to be found in the ugliness of a Silenus as well as in the beauty of a Bacchus."
— from Art, 1911
All quotes by Auguste Rodin (358)
The artist must be a fighter.
The artist must be a conqueror.
The artist must be a king.
The artist must be a slave.
The artist must be a god and a slave at the same time.
The artist must be everything and nothing.
The artist must be a mirror of the world.
The artist must create a spiritual world, a world of dreams, of visions, of poetry, which will be the reflection of his own soul.
Beauty is nothing but the first of terrors we're able to bear.
The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.
The work of art must be a living thing, a thing that breathes, that feels, that suffers, that loves.
The human body is a temple, a temple of the soul, a temple of God.
The true artist is a man who sees with his heart, not with his eyes.
Art is a contemplation of the world in a state of grace.
The artist must be a poet, a philosopher, a mystic.
To be an artist is to believe in life.
The human form is a language, a language that speaks of joy, of sorrow, of hope, of despair.
The artist is a mirror, reflecting the world around him, but also reflecting his own soul.
The true work of art is a window into the soul of the artist.
There is nothing more beautiful than the human body, when it is animated by the soul.
Contemporaries of Auguste Rodin
Other Visual Artss born within 50 years of Auguste Rodin (1840–1917).