{"id":519848,"date":"2026-06-26T17:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T17:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519848\/"},"modified":"2026-06-26T17:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T17:23:19","slug":"rare-film-of-sculptor-auguste-rodin-working-at-his-studio-in-paris-1915","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/519848\/","title":{"rendered":"Rare Film of Sculptor Auguste Rodin Working at His Studio in Paris (1915)"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve pre\u00advi\u00adous\u00adly fea\u00adtured a series of remark\u00adable lit\u00adtle films of French artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir<\/a>, Claude Mon\u00adet<\/a> and Edgar Degas<\/a>. Here we wrap things up with just one more: a rare glimpse of the great sculp\u00adtor Auguste Rodin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The footage was tak\u00aden in 1915, two years before Rod\u00adin\u2019s death. There are sev\u00ader\u00adal sequences. The first shows the artist at the columned entrance to an uniden\u00adti\u00adfied struc\u00adture, fol\u00adlowed by a brief shot of him pos\u00ading in a gar\u00adden some\u00adwhere. The rest of the film, begin\u00adning at the 53-sec\u00adond mark, was clear\u00adly shot at the pala\u00adtial, but dilap\u00adi\u00addat\u00aded,\u00a0H\u00f4tel Biron<\/a>, which Rodin was using as a stu\u00addio and sec\u00adond home.<\/p>\n

The man\u00adsion was built as a pri\u00advate res\u00adi\u00addence in the ear\u00adly 18th cen\u00adtu\u00adry, and served as a Catholic school for girls from 1820 until about 1904, when it became ille\u00adgal for pub\u00adlic mon\u00adey to be used for reli\u00adgious edu\u00adca\u00adtion. When the last of the nuns cleared out, the rooms of the H\u00f4tel Biron were rent\u00aded out to a diverse group of peo\u00adple that includ\u00aded some notable artists: Jean Cocteau, Isado\u00adra Dun\u00adcan, Hen\u00adri Matisse and Rain\u00ader Maria Rilke, who served for a time as Rod\u00adin\u2019s sec\u00adre\u00adtary. It was Rilke\u2019s wife, the sculp\u00adtor Clara West\u00adhoff Rilke, who first told Rodin about the place in 1909.<\/p>\n

Rodin first rent\u00aded four rooms on the main floor, but was alarmed when he learned of plans to sell the prop\u00ader\u00adty off in pieces to devel\u00adop\u00aders. So he made a deal with the gov\u00adern\u00adment: In exchange for bequeath\u00ading all his works to the French state, the sculp\u00adtor was allowed to occu\u00adpy the man\u00adsion for the rest of his life, and after he died, the estate would become the Mus\u00e9e Rodin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By the time actor Sacha Gui\u00adt\u00adry<\/a> and his cam\u00adera\u00adman arrived to film this scene from\u00a0Ceux de Chez Nous<\/a>, or \u201cThose of Our Land,\u201d Rodin was the sole occu\u00adpant of the H\u00f4tel Biron. The film shows the 74-year-old artist walk\u00ading down the weed-cov\u00adered steps of the man\u00adsion and work\u00ading inside, chip\u00adping away at a mar\u00adble stat\u00adue with a ham\u00admer and chis\u00adel. When Rodin was asked once about how he cre\u00adat\u00aded his stat\u00adues, he said, \u201cI choose a block of mar\u00adble and chop off what\u00adev\u00ader I don\u2019t need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Note: An ear\u00adli\u00ader ver\u00adsion of this post appeared on our site in 2012.<\/p>\n

If you would like to sup\u00adport the mis\u00adsion of Open Cul\u00adture, con\u00adsid\u00ader mak\u00ading\u00a0a dona\u00adtion to our site<\/a>. It\u2019s hard to rely 100% on ads, and your con\u00adtri\u00adbu\u00adtions<\/a> will help us con\u00adtin\u00adue pro\u00advid\u00ading the best free cul\u00adtur\u00adal and edu\u00adca\u00adtion\u00adal mate\u00adri\u00adals to learn\u00aders every\u00adwhere. You can con\u00adtribute through Pay\u00adPal<\/a>, Patre\u00adon<\/a>, and Ven\u00admo (@openculture). Thanks!<\/p>\n

Writ\u00adten by Mike Springer<\/p>\n

Relat\u00aded Con\u00adtent:<\/p>\n

Watch 1915 Video of Mon\u00adet, Renoir, Rodin & Degas: The New Motion Pic\u00adture Cam\u00adera Cap\u00adtures the Inno\u00adv\u00ada\u00adtive Artists<\/a><\/p>\n

Time Trav\u00adel Back to 1926 and Watch Wass\u00adi\u00adly Kandin\u00adsky Make Art in Some Rare Vin\u00adtage Video<\/a><\/p>\n

Geor\u00adgia O\u2019Keeffe: A Life in Art, a Short Doc\u00adu\u00admen\u00adtary on the Painter Nar\u00adrat\u00aded by Gene Hack\u00adman<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We\u2019ve pre\u00advi\u00adous\u00adly fea\u00adtured a series of remark\u00adable lit\u00adtle films of French artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Mon\u00adet and Edgar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519849,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-519848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519849"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}