Auguste Rodin
The Inner Voice, 1886
Artwork Brief Description
Rodin’s *The Inner Voice* is a dynamic yet introspective sculpture, capturing movement and emotion through its twisted form. Originally part of *The Gates of Hell*, the work represents meditation and inner struggle. Rodin’s decision to leave it unfinished adds to its philosophical depth, inviting viewers to complete its meaning.
François Auguste René Rodin 12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, and deeply pocketed surface in clay. He is known for such sculptures as The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell.
Many of Rodin's most notable sculptures were criticized, as they clashed with predominant figurative sculpture traditions in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory. He modeled the human body with naturalism, and his sculptures celebrate individual character and physicality. Although Rodin was sensitive to the controversy surrounding his work, he refused to change his style, and his continued output brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community.
From the unexpected naturalism of Rodin's first major figure – inspired by his 1875 trip to Italy – to the unconventional memorials whose commissions he later sought, his reputation grew, and Rodin became the preeminent French sculptor of his time. By 1900, he was a world-renowned artist.
Wealthy private clients sought Rodin's work after his World's Fair exhibit, and he kept company with a variety of high-profile intellectuals and artists. His student, Camille Claudel, became his associate, lover, and creative rival. Rodin's other students included Antoine Bourdelle, Constantin Brâncuși, and Charles Despiau. He married his lifelong companion, Rose Beuret, in the last year of both their lives. His sculptures suffered a decline in popularity after his death in 1917, but within a few decades his legacy solidified. Rodin remains one of the few sculptors widely known outside the visual arts community.
Auguste Rodin (French 1840-1917) The Inner Voice, 1886
Rodin’s “The Inner Voice” peers precariously into the water lily pond. Her raised leg and slanted shoulders create a snapshot of movement against the stillness of the water’s surface. The twisted contrapposto position of her body mirrors the flow of the reeds that border the pond and despite this twisting and seemingly uncomfortable pose, her soft, neutral expression gives a fascinated dignity and balance to the figure. As our eye follows the soft, sensual curves of her body, Rodin encourages the viewer to walk around the sculpture in order to truly understand her unusual positioning.
This sculpture originates in the form of one of the Damned Women arranged on the far right side of one of Rodin’s most significant artworks, The Gates of Hell. This monumental creation was inspired by Michelangelo, who’s work he often visited when he came to London’s Victoria & Albert Museum. The figure of the Damned Women often reappeared, reworked and perfected in several other projects, including Rodin’s, Monument to Victor Hugo in which he references the poet's 1837 poetry collection. The poetry was undoubtedly a source of inspiration for Rodin, as Hugo’s lines below perfectly describe Rodin’s masterpiece,
“She is soft, melancholy, and charming. Her fresh, youthful body is infused with water and the ocean, and she whispers the sweet words that are babbled by the waves, that brush through the tree leaves along the river, and that are sung by children, young girls, and lovers.”
After many revisions of this sculpture Rodin settled on an unfinished appearance, tripling her original size from the Gates of Hell whilst taking away the drapery that was on her knee and chopping off her arms. This approach confused many who viewed it, for why would you leave a sculpture unfinished? Of course Rodin did not feel this way, and this work began his increasingly modern and conceptual approach to sculpture. Of the piece he said,
“My figure represents 'Meditation'. That is why it has neither arms to act nor legs to walk. Haven't you noticed that reflection, when persisted in, suggests so many plausible arguments for opposite directions that it ends in inertia?”
In the garden, removed from any context, the undulating curves of this dismembered body become a powerful expression of internalised emotion. Rainer Maria Rilker published the most comprehensive monograph on Rodin and when he described The Inner Voice, he said, “Never was the human body so bent by its own soul”. Rilke goes on to address the lack of arms, by saying, “nothing vital is missing. One stands before them as if before a completed whole that brooks no complement.” Simply by removing parts of the body Rodin implores the viewer to engage their imagination, we are no longer passive but instead become active participants in completing this mesmerising scene.