"The passion represented by the collection will from now on be inseparable from the scholarship disseminated in this catalogue which represents the culmination of a lifetime of research."

   Antoinette LeNormand-Romain,

   Chief Curator of the Musee Rodin Paris

THE LATE ALBERT ELSEN was the first American scholar to study seriously the work of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin.and the person most responsible for a revival of interest in the artist as a modern innovator--after years during which the sculpture had been dismissed as so much Victorian bathos. After a fortuitous meeting with the financier, philanthropist, and art collector B. Gerald Cantor, Elsen helped Cantor build a major collection of Rodin's world. A large part of this collection,consisting of more than two hundred works, was donated to Stanford University's museum by Mr. Cantor, who died in 1996. In size, Stanford s collection is surpassed only by the Musee Rodin in Paris and rivaled only by the collection in Philadelphia.          

    !In scope, the collection is unique in having been carefully selected to present a balanced vitw of Rodin s work throughout his life.

Rodin's Art encompasses a lifetinae's thoughts on Rodin's career, surveying the artist's accomplishments through the detailed discussion of each object in the collection. Its essays on the formation of the collection,the reception of Rodin's work, and his casting techniques are invaluable. The other entries, arranged topically, include extensive discussions of Rodin's major projects.

Foundation Foreword

Director's Foreword

Preface

Acknowledgments

Two Genuine Articles

B. Gerald Cantor and the Stanford Rodin Collection

Introduction

The Many Lives of a Rodin Sculpture

Casting a Rodin Sculpture

CATALOGUE

 The Patriotic Themes

 The Burghers of calais

 Monuments to and Portraits of Artists

 Other Portraits and Symbolic Heads

 Small Sculptures

 Partial Figures and the Hands

 Ceramics

 Drawings

Appendix

Selected Bibliography

Index

Photo Credits