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Head of Baudelaire

Head of Baudelaire

This bronze-cast sculpture is of French poet Charles Baudelaire. The piece was made by French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Baudelaire was born in 1821 and died in 1867, while Rodin was born about twenty years later in 1840 but lived until 1917. Although the men were nineteen years apart in age, they lived in Paris at roughly the same time. Both of them participated in the artistic movements of “La Belle Époque,” the era when Paris became famous for its vibrant art and glittering style. Rodin made this sculpture as a tribute to Baudelaire about thirty years after the poet’s death, when his poetry started to gain widespread international attention.

A bronze sculpture of a man's head staring directly ahead. The facial features are detailed and precise. The man does not have any hair. Head of Baudelaire Auguste Rodin French 1898 (cast 1950) Bronze Base: 6 in. (15.2 cm), Overall (head only): 8 in. (20.3 cm), Overall: 14 in. (35.6 cm) Gift of Mrs. Julian Bobbs, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University 62.1

Politically, France was in turmoil at the start of the 1800s. The main French Revolution began in 1789 with the destruction of the monarchy, and eventually concluded in 1804 when Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France. However, the government did not stabilize at all under that leadership. Instead, France cycled through a rapid series of republics and empires, led two more formal revolutions, and had a total of three different emperors, all named Napoleon Bonaparte. Baudelaire, like many of his fellow French artists and authors, participated in the Revolutions of 1848 by writing for a revolutionary newspaper. He noted in his journals that he didn’t care much about politics, but that he hated how France suffered under the constant threats of violence. The revolutionary period in France prevented many people from freely pursuing their passions. Many 19th century artists, including Baudelaire, were deeply affected by the difficulties of this time.

After the Revolutions of 1848, the country finally found some sense of stability, which opened the door for an explosion of art and culture in Paris. People call the period from then until World War I “La Belle Époque,” which translates to “the Beautiful Age” or “the Golden Age.” Baudelaire published his most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal, in 1857, and Rodin submitted his first sculpture for exhibition in 1862. Many of France’s most famous artists lived during La Belle Époque, including Edward Degas, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Vincent van Gogh, who was Dutch but chose to live in Paris for his artistic career. Victor Hugo published Les Misérables around this time, while composer Claude Debussy wrote his extremely popular piece Clair de Lune. La Belle Époque set France apart for attracting all manners of art and culture. The sculpture of Baudelaire represents that hub of art and the artistic interactions Paris had throughout the 1800s.

Resources

Resource 1

The Thinker- Le Musée Rodin

Although the head of Baudelaire is not one of Rodin’s well-known pieces, The Thinker certainly has a reputation. This is a giant cast of the work, which some consider the most celebrated modern sculpture. Rodin had a unique talent for expressing muscles and movement even in stationary figures- the Thinker is seated, but his muscles are defined and tense. The original piece was made in 1880, and the massive version at the Musée Rodin was cast in 1904.

Rodin, like other artists of La Belle Époque, pushed the boundaries of what people assumed was possible for certain art mediums. Rodin’s work was so realistic that people often accused him of surmoulage, meaning they thought he had taken a mold of a live model rather than sculpt it himself. To prove them wrong, he began making his sculptures significantly larger or smaller than life; his original version of The Thinker was only 27.5 inches tall, and the enlarged one here sits at 6’2”. The Thinker was a symbol of new possibilities for sculptors, and a demonstration that Parisian artists were pushing Western art to new heights.

Resource 2

Crash Course 1848- YouTube

This Crash Course video is entirely about the Revolutions of 1848- both in France and in several other European states. This video is intended for European History students, so it is very long and has way more information than you probably need. To just get the parts about France, watch from timestamp ~7:12 to ~8:50. However, the rest of the video does have solid information, so it may be useful for high school students.

The Revolution of 1848 was a major influence on the art explosion of La Belle Époque. As the video mentions, French artisans were one of the groups most affected by the earlier revolutions and other national crises. From those experiences, artists and authors started to question traditional ways of life. From 1848 on, they began to reject classical subjects and replace it with “modernity” (a term coined by Baudelaire). This desire to move on from the revolutionary years inspired the art of La Belle Époque and gave Rodin his Modernist style.

For a more basic 1789 French Revolution documentary, The French Revolution is a good DVD version from the BBC.

Resource 3

1900- The Paris Exposition Universelle- YouTube

Photo Collection from World's Fair- National Gallery of Art

The 1900 Paris Exposition (L'Exposition Universelle) was a massive world fair that ran from April to November 1900, in the center of Paris. It was actually Paris’ fifth time hosting the World Fair, and it was by far the largest. Approximately 50 million people attended the exposition, at a time when the entire population of France was only 40 million. The exposition was a culminating event for French cultural movements. The fair featured hundreds of activities and displays, from international congresses to talking films to moving sidewalks, and the organizers sought to infuse French art into all of it. The World Fair highlighted Paris as the center of “Modernity.” Several major events occurred during the fair. The Eiffel Tower was fitted with elevators and 7,000 electric lamps, creating the first night-viewing experience for the tower. The exposition also hosted the 1900 Summer Olympics, which was the first Olympics outside of Greece, and the first games in which women could compete. All of this furthered Paris’ reputation as the leader in cultural developments.

Resource 4

Extra Fun Facts About the Paris Olympics

These Olympics lasted around six months and had no formal regulation whatsoever. Mixed records, cheating, and random extra competitors were all common. In one report, the winning marathon runners cheated by taking a shortcut halfway through the race. The International Olympic Committee still hasn’t passed judgement on whether any of these events were formally “Olympic.” It lacked both an opening and a closing ceremony.

The events featured a homing pigeon race from Paris to Lyons, and a 36-hour hot air balloon race from France to Russia. There was also a “lifesaving” event, which is no longer an Olympic event but does appear in The World Games, a modern competition for non-Olympic sports. Only 22 women competed, compared to over 900 men. With so few female competitors, many sports didn’t have men’s or women’s divisions, allowing both sexes to compete directly against and alongside each other.