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114-485: Despite its name, the museum has no direct association with the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin , other than as a posthumous commemoration. The facility was founded by professor Ivan Tsvetaev (father of the poet Marina Tsvetaeva ) in 1912. Tsvetaev persuaded the millionaire and philanthropist Yuriy Nechaev-Maltsov and the architect Roman Klein of the urgent need to give Moscow a fine arts museum. After going through

228-454: A Belgian soldier, the figure drew inspiration from Michelangelo's Dying Slave , which Rodin had observed at the Louvre . Attempting to combine Michelangelo's mastery of the human form with his own sense of human nature, Rodin studied his model from all angles, at rest and in motion; he mounted a ladder for additional perspective, and made clay models, which he studied by candlelight. The result

342-610: A critic and as a journalist marked the birth of Russian magazine culture which included him devising and contributing heavily to one of the most influential literary magazines of the 19th century, the Sovremennik ( The Contemporary , or Современник ). Pushkin inspired the folk tales and genre pieces of other authors: Leskov , Yesenin and Gorky . His use of Russian formed the basis of the style of novelists Ivan Turgenev , Ivan Goncharov and Leo Tolstoy , as well as that of subsequent lyric poets such as Mikhail Lermontov . Pushkin

456-423: A free studio, granting Rodin a new level of artistic freedom. Soon, he stopped working at the porcelain factory in 1882; his income came from private commissions. In 1883, Rodin agreed to supervise a course for sculptor Alfred Boucher in his absence, where he met the 18-year-old Camille Claudel . The two formed a passionate but stormy relationship and influenced each other artistically. Claudel inspired Rodin as

570-528: A greater degree than his contemporaries, Rodin believed that an individual's character was revealed by his physical features. Rodin's talent for surface modeling allowed him to let every part of the body speak for the whole. The male's passion in The Thinker is suggested by the grip of his toes on the rock, the rigidness of his back, and the differentiation of his hands. Speaking of The Thinker , Rodin illuminated his aesthetic: "What makes my Thinker think

684-422: A model for many of his figures, and she was a talented sculptor, assisting him on commissions as well as creating her own works. Her Bust of Rodin was displayed to critical acclaim at the 1892 Salon. Although busy with The Gates of Hell , Rodin won other commissions. He pursued an opportunity to create a historical monument for the town of Calais . For a monument to French author Honoré de Balzac , Rodin

798-834: A nobleman of African origin who was kidnapped from his homeland by the Ottomans , then freed by the Russian Emperor and raised in the Emperor's court household as his godson . He published his first poem at the age of 15, and was widely recognized by the literary establishment by the time of his graduation from the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum . Upon graduation from the Lycée, Pushkin recited his controversial poem " Ode to Liberty ", one of several that led to his exile by Emperor Alexander I . While under strict surveillance by

912-732: A number of name changes, particularly in the transition to the Soviet era and the return of the Russian capital to Moscow, the museum was finally renamed to honour Pushkin in 1937, the 100th anniversary of his death. During the Bolshevik Revolution , works by French impressionists and modern artists were confiscated and then exhibited in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg before being privately stored. In 2019, those works reappeared and some of them rejoined

1026-553: A part-time position as a designer. The offer was in part a gesture of reconciliation, and Rodin accepted. That part of Rodin which appreciated 18th-century tastes was aroused, and he immersed himself in designs for vases and table ornaments that brought the factory renown across Europe. The artistic community appreciated his work in this vein, and Rodin was invited to Paris Salons by such friends as writer Léon Cladel . During his early appearances at these social events, Rodin seemed shy; in his later years, as his fame grew, he displayed

1140-456: A realm where forms existed for their own sake. Notable examples are The Walking Man , Meditation without Arms , and Iris, Messenger of the Gods . Rodin saw suffering and conflict as hallmarks of modern art. "Nothing, really, is more moving than the maddened beast, dying from unfulfilled desire and asking in vain for grace to quell its passion." Charles Baudelaire echoed those themes and

1254-495: A short story frequently anthologized in English translation. Pushkin's works also provided fertile ground for Russian composers. Glinka 's Ruslan and Lyudmila is the earliest important Pushkin-inspired opera, and a landmark in the tradition of Russian music. Tchaikovsky 's operas Eugene Onegin (1879) and The Queen of Spades ( Pikovaya Dama , 1890) became perhaps better known outside of Russia than Pushkin's own works of

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1368-589: A single lithograph . Portraiture was an important component of Rodin's oeuvre, helping him to win acceptance and financial independence. His first sculpture was a bust of his father in 1860, and he produced at least 56 portraits between 1877 and his death in 1917. Early subjects included fellow sculptor Jules Dalou (1883) and companion Camille Claudel (1884). Later, with his reputation established, Rodin made busts of prominent contemporaries such as English politician George Wyndham (1905), Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1906), socialist (and former mistress of

1482-550: A small old castle (the Château de l'Islette in the Loire), but Rodin refused to relinquish his ties to Beuret, his loyal companion during the lean years, and mother of his son. During one absence, Rodin wrote to Beuret, "I think of how much you must have loved me to put up with my caprices...I remain, in all tenderness, your Rodin." Claudel and Rodin parted in 1898. Claudel suffered an alleged nervous breakdown several years later and

1596-452: A striving for perfection. He conceived The Gates with the surmoulage controversy still in mind: "...I had made the St. John to refute [the charges of casting from a model], but it only partially succeeded. To prove completely that I could model from life as well as other sculptors, I determined...to make the sculpture on the door of figures smaller than life." Laws of composition gave way to

1710-560: A technical achievement that was lost on most contemporary critics. Rodin chose this contradictory position to, in his words, "display simultaneously...views of an object which in fact can be seen only successively". Despite the title, St. John the Baptist Preaching did not have an obviously religious theme. The model, an Italian peasant who presented himself at Rodin's studio, possessed an idiosyncratic sense of movement that Rodin felt compelled to capture. Rodin thought of John

1824-598: A theme. He first titled the work The Vanquished , in which form the left hand held a spear, but he removed the spear because it obstructed the torso from certain angles. After two more intermediary titles, Rodin settled on The Age of Bronze , suggesting the Bronze Age , and in Rodin's words, "man arising from nature". Later, however, Rodin said that he had had in mind "just a simple piece of sculpture without reference to subject". Its mastery of form, light, and shadow made

1938-430: A time, when it will not seem outre to represent a great novelist as a huge comic mask crowning a bathrobe, but even at the present day this statue impresses one as slang." A modern critic, indeed, claims that Balzac is one of Rodin's masterpieces. The monument had its supporters in Rodin's day; a manifesto defending him was signed by Monet , Debussy , and future Premier Georges Clemenceau , among many others. In

2052-508: A traditional bust , but instead the head was "broken off" at the neck, the nose was flattened and crooked, and the back of the head was absent, having fallen off the clay model in an accident. The work emphasized texture and the emotional state of the subject; it illustrated the "unfinishedness" that would characterize many of Rodin's later sculptures. The Salon rejected the piece. In Brussels, Rodin created his first full-scale work, The Age of Bronze , having returned from Italy. Modeled after

2166-452: A united, heroic front; rather, each is isolated from his brothers, individually deliberating and struggling with his expected fate. Rodin soon proposed that the monument's high pedestal be eliminated, wanting to move the sculpture to ground level so that viewers could "penetrate to the heart of the subject". At ground level, the figures' positions lead the viewer around the work, and subtly suggest their common movement forward. The committee

2280-677: A valuable gift to the Printing Cabinet: the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museum received more than 20,000 prints from the Hermitage. The collection of Western European sculptures includes more than 600 pieces. The museum has expanded its holdings over the years and currently owns artworks from the 6th-21st centuries. The first artifacts presented to the Museum of Fine Arts were sculptures from Mikhail Schekin's collections. After

2394-547: A young seamstress named Rose Beuret (born in June 1844), with whom he stayed for the rest of his life, with varying commitment. The couple had a son named Auguste-Eugène Beuret (1866–1934). That year, Rodin offered his first sculpture for exhibition and entered the studio of Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse , a successful mass producer of objets d'art . Rodin worked as Carrier-Belleuse' chief assistant until 1870, designing roof decorations and staircase and doorway embellishments. With

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2508-410: Is a work of such complexity that, though it is only about a hundred pages long, translator Vladimir Nabokov needed two full volumes of material to fully render its meaning into English. Because of this difficulty in translation, Pushkin's verse remains largely unknown to English readers. Even so Pushkin has profoundly influenced western writers such as Henry James . Pushkin wrote The Queen of Spades ,

2622-571: Is also known for his short stories. In particular his cycle The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin , including The Shot , were well received. According to the literary theorist Kornelije Kvas, "the narrative logic and the plausibility of that which is narrated, together with the precision, conciseness – economy of the presentation of reality – all of the above is achieved in Tales of Belkin , especially, and most of all in

2736-492: Is now a museum . Pushkin had four children from his marriage to Natalia: Maria (b. 1832), Alexander (b. 1833), Grigory (b. 1835) and Natalia (b. 1836), the last of whom married morganatically Prince Nikolaus Wilhelm of Nassau of the House of Nassau-Weilburg and was granted the title of Countess of Merenberg . Her daughter Sophie married Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich of Russia , a grandson of Emperor Nicholas I . Only

2850-439: Is some show of reason in the complaint that [Rodin's] conceptions are sometimes unsuited to his medium, and that in such cases they overstrain his vast technical powers". The 1897 plaster model was not cast in bronze until 1964. The Société des Gens des Lettres , a Parisian organization of writers, planned a monument to French novelist Honoré de Balzac immediately after his death in 1850. The society commissioned Rodin to create

2964-471: Is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes." Sculptural fragments to Rodin were autonomous works, and he considered them the essence of his artistic statement. His fragments – perhaps lacking arms, legs, or a head – took sculpture further from its traditional role of portraying likenesses, and into

3078-527: The BBC series Civilisation , art historian Kenneth Clark praised the monument as "the greatest piece of sculpture of the 19th Century, perhaps, indeed, the greatest since Michelangelo ." Rather than try to convince skeptics of the merit of the monument, Rodin repaid the Société his commission and moved the figure to his garden. After this experience, Rodin did not complete another public commission. Only in 1939

3192-506: The British Consulate-General in Saint Petersburg , to be his second. Magenis did not formally accept but on 26 January (7 February) approached Viscount d'Archiac to attempt a reconciliation; however d'Archiac refused to speak with him as he was not yet officially Pushkin's second. Magenis, unable to find Pushkin in the evening, sent him a letter through a messenger at 2 o'clock in the morning declining to be his second, as

3306-769: The Brussels Stock Exchange . Rodin planned to stay in Belgium a few months, but he spent the next six years outside of France. It was a pivotal time in his life. He had acquired skill and experience as a craftsman, but no one had yet seen his art, which sat in his workshop since he could not afford castings. His relationship with Carrier-Belleuse had deteriorated, but he found other employment in Brussels, displaying some works at salons, and his companion Rose soon joined him there. Having saved enough money to travel, Rodin visited Italy for two months in 1875, where he

3420-600: The Emperor's political police and unable to publish, Pushkin wrote his most famous play, Boris Godunov . His novel in verse Eugene Onegin was serialized between 1825 and 1832. Pushkin was fatally wounded in a duel with his wife's alleged lover and her sister's husband, Georges-Charles de Heeckeren d'Anthès , also known as Dantes-Gekkern, a French officer serving with the Chevalier Guard Regiment . Pushkin's father, Sergei Lvovich Pushkin (1767–1848),

3534-660: The Gates' disordered and untamed depiction of Hell. The figures and groups in this, Rodin's meditation on the condition of man, are physically and morally isolated in their torment. The Gates of Hell comprised 186 figures in its final form. Many of Rodin's best-known sculptures started as designs of figures for this composition, such as The Thinker , The Three Shades , and The Kiss , and were only later presented as separate and independent works. Other well-known works derived from The Gates are Ugolino , Fallen Caryatid Carrying her Stone , Fugit Amor , She Who Was Once

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3648-544: The Russian invasion of Ukraine . These monuments, along with any toponymy named after him, are now illegal in Ukraine following the implementation of a law that bans symbols "dedicated to persons who publicly, including … in literary and other artistic works, supported, glorified, or justified Russian imperial policy". The centennial of Pushkin's death in 1937 was one of the most significant literary commemorations of

3762-598: The Baptist and carried that association into the title of the work. In 1880, Rodin submitted the sculpture to the Paris Salon. Critics were still mostly dismissive of his work, but the piece finished third in the Salon's sculpture category. Regardless of the immediate receptions of St. John and The Age of Bronze , Rodin had achieved a new degree of fame. Students sought him at his studio, praising his work and scorning

3876-407: The Baptist Preaching , was completed in 1878. Rodin sought to avoid another charge of surmoulage by making the statue larger than life: St. John stands almost 6 feet 7 inches (2.01 m). While The Age of Bronze is statically posed, St. John gestures and seems to move toward the viewer. The effect of walking is achieved despite the figure having both feet firmly on the ground –

3990-476: The Biblical Adam , the mythological Prometheus , and Rodin himself have been ascribed to him. Other observers de-emphasize the apparent intellectual theme of The Thinker , stressing the figure's rough physicality and the emotional tension emanating from it. The town of Calais had contemplated a historical monument for decades when Rodin learned of the project. He pursued the commission, interested in

4104-729: The Catholic order of the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament as a laybrother . Saint Peter Julian Eymard , founder and head of the congregation, recognized Rodin's talent and sensed his lack of suitability for the order, so he encouraged Rodin to continue with his sculpture. Rodin returned to work as a decorator while taking classes with animal sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye . The teacher's attention to detail and his finely rendered musculature of animals in motion significantly influenced Rodin. In 1864, Rodin began to live with

4218-614: The Department of Antiquity was one of the three major scientific departments. Its founder and director, Ivan Tsvetaev (1847-1913), was an expert in ancient art, as were his closest associates, Vladimir Malmberg (1860-1921) and Nikolay Scherbakov (1884-1933). Most of the objects presented in Hall No. 1 have been on display since the museum opening in 1912 and come from the collection of Vladimir Golenishchev (1856-1947). The museum holdings of genuine artifacts of Southwest Asia are based on

4332-481: The French Enlightenment , to which he would remain permanently indebted throughout his life, especially Voltaire , whom he described as "the first to follow the new road, and to bring the lamp of philosophy into the dark archives of history". Pushkin gradually became committed to social reform, and emerged as a spokesman for literary radicals. That angered the government and led to his transfer from

4446-528: The Gregorian calendar) 1837 Pushkin sent a "highly insulting letter" to Gekkern. The only answer to that letter could be a challenge to a duel, as Pushkin knew. Pushkin received the formal challenge to a duel through his sister-in-law, Ekaterina Gekkerna, approved by d'Anthès, on the same day through the attaché of the French Embassy, Viscount d'Archiac. Pushkin asked Arthur Magenis , then attaché to

4560-508: The Helmet-Maker's Beautiful Wife , The Falling Man , and The Prodigal Son . The Thinker (originally titled The Poet , after Dante) was to become one of the best-known sculptures in the world. The original was a 27.5-inch (700 mm) high bronze piece created between 1879 and 1889, designed for the Gates ' lintel , from which the figure would gaze down upon Hell. While The Thinker most obviously characterizes Dante, aspects of

4674-1112: The Numismatic Cabinet located on the balcony of the White Hall. In 1945, the museum's Numismatic Cabinet became an independent department. It includes archaeological material from Central Asia, such as a hoard of Kushano-Sasanian coins acquired in 2002. The work on the Museum Quarter of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts started in the late 2000s. In 2019–23, the Main Building of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts will be reconstructed. 1961-2013: Irina Antonova 2013-March 2023: Marina Loshak Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (6 June [ O.S. 26 May] 1799 – 10 February [ O.S. 29 January] 1837)

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4788-405: The Paris Salon, and criticism likened it to "a statue of a sleepwalker" and called it "an astonishingly accurate copy of a low type". Others rallied to defend the piece and Rodin's integrity. The government minister Turquet admired the piece, and The Age of Bronze was purchased by the state for 2,200 francs  – what it had cost Rodin to have it cast in bronze. A second male nude, St. John

4902-462: The Prince of Wales who became King Edward VII) Countess of Warwick (1908), Austrian composer Gustav Mahler (1909), former Argentine president Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and French statesman Georges Clemenceau (1911). His undated drawing Study of a Woman Nude, Standing, Arms Raised, Hands Crossed Above Head is one of the works seized in 2012 from the collection of Cornelius Gurlitt . Rodin

5016-682: The Pushkin museum. In 1981, the museum held the Moscow-Paris exhibition. In 2016, art historians discovered 59 Italian Renaissance sculptures in the Pushkin Museum that had been missing from Berlin's collections since the Second World War. In March 2022, a number of museums officials, including deputy directors, resigned to protest against Russia's invasion of Ukraine . The building of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts

5130-512: The Romantic" and that "he is simultaneously Romantic and not Romantic". Pushkin is usually credited with developing Russian literature. He is seen as having originated the highly nuanced level of language which characterizes Russian literature after him, and he is also credited with substantially augmenting the Russian lexicon. Whenever he found gaps in the Russian vocabulary, he devised calques . His rich vocabulary and highly-sensitive style are

5244-795: The Soviet era, second only to the 1928 centennial of Leo Tolstoy 's birth. Although Pushkin's image was prominently displayed in Soviet propaganda, from billboards to candy wrappers, it conflicted with the ideal Soviet persona. Pushkin was reputed as a libertine with aristocratic tendencies, which clashed with Soviet values and led to a form of repressive revisionism, akin to the Stalinist reworking of Tolstoy's Christian anarchism . [REDACTED] Category Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin ( / r oʊ ˈ d æ n / ; French: [fʁɑ̃swa oɡyst ʁəne ʁɔdɛ̃] ; 12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917)

5358-555: The arrival of the Franco-Prussian War , Rodin was called to serve in the French National Guard, but his service was brief due to his near-sightedness. Decorators' work had dwindled because of the war, yet Rodin needed to support his family, as poverty was a continual difficulty for him until about the age of 30. Carrier-Belleuse soon asked him to join him in Belgium, where they worked on ornamentation for

5472-732: The basis for the major numismatic collections of Moscow that belonged to the Historical Museum and the Alexander III Fine Arts Museum. Since 1912, objects of ancient and Western European numismatics from the university collection were transferred to the Sculpture Department of the Fine Arts Museum and mostly kept packaged. By June 1925, museum custodians had grouped together a number of cases with coins, medals, and casts and created

5586-818: The capital in May 1820. He went to the Caucasus and to Crimea and then to Kamianka and Chișinău in Bessarabia . He joined the Filiki Eteria , a secret organization whose purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule in Greece and establish an independent Greek state. He was inspired by the Greek Revolution and when the war against the Ottoman Empire broke out, he kept a diary recording the events of

5700-454: The charges of surmoulage . The artistic community knew his name. A commission to create a portal for Paris' planned Museum of Decorative Arts was awarded to Rodin in 1880. Although the museum was never built, Rodin worked throughout his life on The Gates of Hell , a monumental sculptural group depicting scenes from Dante's Inferno in high relief. Often lacking a clear conception of his major works, Rodin compensated with hard work and

5814-457: The collection of Russian Orientalist and Egyptologist Vladimir Golenishchev. The antique collection of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts includes many genuine artifacts: more than 1,000 vessels, small plastic pieces, and sculptures. The collection of casts and copies, typical for European museums of the nineteenth century, is unique today in its preservation and consistency. With a similar cohesiveness, Tsvetaev wanted to present plastic art of

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5928-523: The commission, the Calais committee was not impressed with Rodin's progress. Rodin indicated his willingness to end the project rather than change his design to meet the committee's conservative expectations, but Calais said to continue. In 1889, The Burghers of Calais was first displayed to general acclaim. It is a bronze sculpture weighing two short tons (1,814 kg), and its figures are 6.6 ft (2.0 m) tall. The six men portrayed do not display

6042-418: The distance with deeply gouged features. Rodin's intent had been to show Balzac at the moment of conceiving a work  – to express courage, labor, and struggle. When Monument to Balzac was exhibited in 1898, the negative reaction was not surprising. The Société rejected the work, and the press ran parodies . Criticizing the work, Morey (1918) reflected, "there may come a time, and doubtless will come

6156-608: The drama was not staged until 2007. Around 1825–1829 he met and befriended the Polish poet Adam Mickiewicz , during exile in central Russia. In 1829 he travelled through the Caucasus to Erzurum to visit friends fighting in the Russian army during the Russo-Turkish War . At the end of 1829 Pushkin wanted to set off on a journey abroad, the desire reflected in his poem Let's go, I'm ready . He applied for permission for

6270-704: The emperor's Titular Counsel of the National Archives. However, because insurgents in the Decembrist Uprising (1825) in Saint Petersburg had kept some of Pushkin's earlier political poems, the emperor retained strict control of everything Pushkin published and he was banned from travelling at will. During that same year (1825) Pushkin also wrote what would become his most famous play, the drama Boris Godunov , while at his mother's estate. He could not, however, gain permission to publish it until five years later. The original and uncensored version of

6384-573: The foundation for modern Russian literature. His accomplishments set new records for development of the Russian language and culture. He became the father of Russian literature in the 19th century, marking the highest achievements of the 18th century and the beginning of literary process of the 19th century. He introduced Russia to all the European literary genres as well as a great number of West European writers. He brought natural speech and foreign influences to create modern poetic Russian. Though his life

6498-569: The heroine of Eugene Onegin . Authorities summoned Pushkin to Moscow after his poem Ode to Liberty was found among the belongings of the rebels from the Decembrist Uprising (1825). After his exile in 1820 Pushkin's friends and family continually petitioned for his release, sending letters and meeting Emperor Alexander I and then Emperor Nicholas I on the heels of the Decembrist Uprising. Upon meeting Emperor Nicholas I Pushkin obtained his release from exile and began to work as

6612-403: 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

6726-717: The journey but received negative response from Nicholas I on 17 January 1830. Around 1828 Pushkin met Natalia Goncharova , then 16 years old and one of the most talked-about beauties of Moscow. After much hesitation Natalia accepted a proposal of marriage from Pushkin in April 1830, but not before she received assurances that the Tsarist government had no intention of persecuting the libertarian poet. Later Pushkin and his wife became regulars of court society. They officially became engaged on 6 May 1830 and sent out wedding invitations. Owing to an outbreak of cholera and other circumstances,

6840-547: The judges' Neoclassical tastes, while Rodin had been schooled in light, 18th-century sculpture. He left the Petite École in 1857 and earned a living as a craftsman and ornamenter for most of the next two decades, producing decorative objects and architectural embellishments. Rodin's sister Maria, two years his senior, died of peritonitis in a convent in 1862, and Rodin was anguished with guilt because he had introduced her to an unfaithful suitor. He turned away from art and joined

6954-414: The king's camp, carrying keys to the town's gates and citadel. Rodin began the project in 1884, inspired by the chronicles of the siege by Jean Froissart . Though the town envisioned an allegorical , heroic piece centered on Eustache de Saint-Pierre, the eldest of the six men, Rodin conceived the sculpture as a study in the varied and complex emotions under which all six men were laboring. One year into

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7068-455: 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. Rodin was born in 1840 into a working-class family in Paris, the second child of Marie Cheffer and Jean-Baptiste Rodin, who was a police department clerk. He

7182-662: The lines of Alexander and Natalia still remain. Natalia's granddaughter, Nadejda , married into the extended British royal family, her husband being the uncle of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh , and is the grandmother of the present Marquess of Milford Haven . Descendants of the poet now live around the globe in the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the United States. Critics consider many of his works masterpieces, such as

7296-522: The loquaciousness and temperament for which he is better known. French statesman Leon Gambetta expressed a desire to meet Rodin, and the sculptor impressed him when they met at a salon. Gambetta spoke of Rodin in turn to several government ministers, likely including Edmund Turquet , the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Fine Arts, whom Rodin eventually met. Rodin's relationship with Turquet

7410-463: The medieval motif and patriotic theme. The mayor of Calais was tempted to hire Rodin on the spot upon visiting his studio, and soon the memorial was approved, with Rodin as its architect. It would commemorate the six townspeople of Calais who offered their lives to save their fellow citizens. During the Hundred Years' War , the army of King Edward III besieged Calais, and Edward ordered that

7524-429: The memorial in 1891, and Rodin spent years developing the concept for his sculpture. Challenged in finding an appropriate representation of Balzac given the author's rotund physique, Rodin produced many studies: portraits, full-length figures in the nude, wearing a frock coat , or in a robe  – a replica of which Rodin had requested. The realized sculpture displays Balzac cloaked in the drapery, looking forcefully into

7638-496: The modern era and complete the collection with casts made from contemporary sculptures, where Auguste Rodin 's works would take the central place. Today, the holdings of the Numismatics Department of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts form a collection in excess of 200,000 items and 3,000 volumes of the special library. It was started at Imperial Moscow University. In 1888, the collection was divided and formed

7752-533: The museum collection are pieces of Byzantine art : mosaics and icons . The early stage of development of Western European painting is represented by a relatively small collection of Italian Primitives. The hall of early Italian art was opened on October 10, 1924. The Department of Prints and Drawings was founded in 1924, when the museum received the holdings of the Printing Cabinet of the Moscow Public and Rumyantsev Museum . In 1861, Alexander II made

7866-620: The national uprising. He stayed in Chișinău until 1823 and wrote two Romantic poems which brought him acclaim: The Prisoner of the Caucasus and The Fountain of Bakhchisaray . In 1823, Pushkin moved to Odessa , where he again clashed with the government, which sent him into exile on his mother's rural estate of Mikhailovskoye , near Pskov , from 1824 to 1826. In Mikhaylovskoye, Pushkin wrote nostalgic love poems which he dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova, wife of Malorossia 's General-Governor . Then Pushkin worked on his verse-novel Eugene Onegin . In Mikhaylovskoye, in 1825, Pushkin wrote

7980-405: The next ten years. As their relationship came to a close, despite his genuine feeling for her, Rodin eventually resorted to the use of concièrges and secretaries to keep her at a distance. In 1864, Rodin submitted his first sculpture for exhibition, The Man with the Broken Nose , to the Paris Salon . The subject was an elderly neighborhood street porter. The unconventional bronze piece was not

8094-481: The period of Pushkin's growing literary influence, he met one of Russia's other influential early writers, Nikolai Gogol . After reading Gogol's 1831–1832 volume of short stories Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka , Pushkin supported him and would feature some of Gogol's most famous short stories in the magazine The Contemporary , which he founded in 1836. By the autumn of 1836, Pushkin was falling into greater and greater debt and faced scandalous rumours that his wife

8208-474: The poem The Bronze Horseman and the drama The Stone Guest , a tale of the fall of Don Juan . His poetic short drama Mozart and Salieri (like The Stone Guest , one of the so-called four Little Tragedies , a collective characterization by Pushkin himself in 1830 letter to Pyotr Pletnyov ) was the inspiration for Peter Shaffer 's Amadeus as well as providing the libretto (almost verbatim) to Rimsky-Korsakov 's opera Mozart and Salieri . Pushkin

8322-612: The poem To*** . It is generally believed that he dedicated this poem to Anna Kern , but there are other opinions. Poet Mikhail Dudin believed that the poem was dedicated to the serf Olga Kalashnikova. Pushkinist Kira Victorova believed that the poem was dedicated to the Empress Elizaveta Alekseyevna. Vadim Nikolayev argued that the idea about the Empress was marginal and refused to discuss it, while trying to prove that poem had been dedicated to Tatyana Larina,

8436-503: The possibility of a peaceful settlement had already been quashed, and the traditional first task of the second was to try to bring about a reconciliation. The pistol duel with d'Anthès took place on 27 January (8 February) at the Black River , without the presence of a second for Pushkin. The duel they fought was of a kind known as a "barrier duel". The rules of this type dictated that the duellists began at an agreed distance. After

8550-598: The prestigious Imperial Lyceum in Tsarskoye Selo , near Saint Petersburg, his talent was already widely recognized on the Russian literary scene. At the Lyceum, he was a student of David Mara, known in Russia as David de Boudry  [ fr ] , a younger brother of French revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat . After school, Pushkin plunged into the vibrant and raucous intellectual youth culture of St. Petersburg, which

8664-495: The project. Grigoryan's design provides new modern buildings and, following the protest of heritage groups who campaigned to save the pre-revolutionary architecture, preserves the historic 1930s gas station near the Pushkin's main building inside a glass structure. The holdings of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts currently include around 700,000 paintings, sculptures , drawings , applied works, photographs, and archaeological and animalistic objects. The earliest monuments from

8778-461: The revolution, the museum received sculptures from nationalized collections. The collection of decorative art pieces from Europe includes around 2,000 items. The earliest are from the Middle Ages , and the set as a whole is very diverse. The Museum of Fine Arts was intended primarily as a museum of classical arts. Ancient artifacts were the core and the main components of its collection, and

8892-1330: The same name. Mussorgsky 's monumental Boris Godunov (two versions, 1868–9 and 1871–2) ranks as one of the very finest and most original of Russian operas. Other Russian operas based on Pushkin include Dargomyzhsky 's Rusalka and The Stone Guest ; Rimsky-Korsakov 's Mozart and Salieri , Tale of Tsar Saltan , and The Golden Cockerel ; Cui 's Prisoner of the Caucasus , Feast in Time of Plague , and The Captain's Daughter ; Tchaikovsky 's Mazeppa ; Rachmaninoff 's one-act operas Aleko (based on The Gypsies ) and The Miserly Knight ; Stravinsky 's Mavra , and Nápravník 's Dubrovsky . Additionally, ballets and cantatas , as well as innumerable songs , have been set to Pushkin's verse (including even his French-language poems, in Isabelle Aboulker 's song cycle " Caprice étrange "). Suppé , Leoncavallo and Malipiero have also based operas on his works. Composers Yudif Grigorevna Rozhavskaya , Galina Konstantinovna Smirnova , Yevgania Yosifovna Yakhina , Maria Semyonovna Zavalishina , Zinaida Petrovna Ziberova composed folk songs using Pushkin's text. The Desire of Glory , which has been dedicated to Elizaveta Vorontsova,

9006-613: The scholars Dieudonné Gnammankou and Hugh Barnes eventually conclusively established that Gannibal was instead born in Central Africa, in an area bordering Lake Chad in modern-day Cameroon . After education in France as a military engineer , Gannibal became governor of Reval and eventually Général en Chief (the third most senior army rank) in charge of the building of sea forts and canals in Russia. Born in Moscow, Pushkin

9120-531: The signal to begin, they walked towards each other, closing the distance. They could fire at any time they wished, but the duellist that shot first was required to stand still and wait for the other to shoot back at his leisure. D'Anthès fired first, critically wounding Pushkin; the bullet entered at his hip and penetrated his abdomen. D'Anthès was only lightly wounded in the right arm by Pushkin's shot. Two days later, at 2.45 pm on 29 January (10 February), Pushkin died of peritonitis . At Pushkin's wife's request he

9234-450: The story The Stationmaster . Pushkin is the progenitor of the long and fruitful development of Russian realist literature, for he manages to attain the realist ideal of a concise presentation of reality". Pushkin himself preferred his verse novel Eugene Onegin , which he wrote over the course of his life and which, starting a tradition of great Russian novels, follows a few central characters but varies widely in tone and focus. Onegin

9348-455: The style of Carpeaux . In competitions for commissions he submitted models of Denis Diderot , Jean-Jacques Rousseau , and Lazare Carnot , all to no avail. On his own time, he worked on studies leading to the creation of his next important work, St. John the Baptist Preaching . In 1880, Carrier-Belleuse – then art director of the Sèvres national porcelain factory – offered Rodin

9462-404: The town's population be killed en masse . He agreed to spare them if six of the principal citizens would come to him prepared to die, bareheaded and barefooted and with ropes around their necks. When they came, he ordered that they be executed, but pardoned them when his queen, Philippa of Hainault , begged him to spare their lives. The Burghers of Calais depicts the men as they are leaving for

9576-626: 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

9690-473: The wedding was delayed for a year. The ceremony took place on 18 February 1831 (Old Style) in the Great Ascension Church on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street in Moscow. Pushkin's marriage to Goncharova was largely a happy one, but his wife’s characteristic flirtatiousness and frivolity would lead to his fatal duel seven years later, for Pushkin had a highly jealous temperament. In 1831, during

9804-442: The work look so naturalistic that Rodin was accused of surmoulage  – having taken a cast from a living model. Rodin vigorously denied the charges, writing to newspapers and having photographs taken of the model to prove how the sculpture differed. He demanded an inquiry and was eventually exonerated by a committee of sculptors. Leaving aside the false charges, the piece polarized critics. It had barely won acceptance for display at

9918-606: Was Monument to Balzac cast in bronze and placed on the Boulevard du Montparnasse at the intersection with Boulevard Raspail . The popularity of Rodin's most famous sculptures tends to obscure his total creative output. A prolific artist, he created thousands of busts, figures, and sculptural fragments over more than five decades. He painted in oils (especially in his thirties) and in watercolors . The Musée Rodin holds 7,000 of his drawings and prints, in chalk and charcoal , and thirteen vigorous drypoints . He also produced

10032-632: Was Abram Petrovich Gannibal (1696–1781), an African page kidnapped and taken to Constantinople as a gift for the Ottoman Sultan and later transferred to Russia as a gift for Peter the Great . Abram wrote in a letter to Empress Elizabeth, Peter the Great's daughter, that Gannibal was from the town of "Lagon", largely on the basis of a mythical biography by Gannibal's son-in-law Rotkirch. Vladimir Nabokov , when researching Eugene Onegin , cast serious doubt on this origin theory. Later research by

10146-692: 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

10260-455: Was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era . He is considered by many to be the greatest Russian poet, as well as the founder of modern Russian literature . Pushkin was born into the Russian nobility in Moscow. His father, Sergey Lvovich Pushkin, belonged to an old noble family. One of his maternal great-grandfathers was Major-General Abram Petrovich Gannibal ,

10374-434: Was a life-size, well-proportioned nude figure, posed unconventionally with his right hand atop his head, and his left arm held out at his side, forearm parallel to the body. In 1877, the work debuted in Brussels and then was shown at the Paris Salon. The statue's apparent lack of a theme was troubling to critics – commemorating neither mythology nor a noble historical event – and it is not clear whether Rodin intended

10488-531: Was a naturalist, less concerned with monumental expression than with character and emotion. Departing with centuries of tradition, he turned away from the idealism of the Greeks, and the decorative beauty of the Baroque and neo-Baroque movements. His sculpture emphasized the individual and the concreteness of flesh, and suggested emotion through detailed, textured surfaces, and the interplay of light and shadow. To

10602-564: Was also in the ever-helpful Thérèse's care. Rodin had essentially abandoned his son for six years, and would have a very limited relationship with him throughout his life. Father and son joined the couple in their flat, with Rose as caretaker. Charges of fakery surrounding The Age of Bronze continued. Rodin increasingly sought soothing female companionship in Paris, and Rose stayed in the background. Rodin earned his living collaborating with more established sculptors on public commissions, primarily memorials and neo-baroque architectural pieces in

10716-521: Was among Rodin's favorite poets. Rodin enjoyed music, especially the opera composer Gluck , and wrote a book about French cathedrals . He owned a work by the as-yet-unrecognized Van Gogh and admired the forgotten El Greco . Instead of copying traditional academic postures, Rodin preferred his models to move naturally around his studio (despite their nakedness). The sculptor often made quick sketches in clay that were later fine-tuned, cast in plaster, and cast in bronze or carved from marble. Rodin's focus

10830-598: Was analysed by Nikolai Gogol , his successor and pupil, and the great Russian critic Vissarion Belinsky , who produced the fullest and deepest critical study of Pushkin's work, which still retains much of its relevance. In the centennial year of Pushkin's death in 1937, a mass renaming of streets across the entire Soviet Union occurred in his honour. Prior to 2022, Pushkin was the third most common historical figure represented in Ukraine’s streets, but his monuments were removed and streets bearing his name were renamed following

10944-479: Was at Petite École that he met Jules Dalou and Alphonse Legros . In 1857, Rodin submitted a clay model of a companion to the École des Beaux-Arts in an attempt to win entrance; he did not succeed, and two further applications were also denied. Entrance requirements were not particularly high at the Grande École , so the rejections were considerable setbacks. Rodin's inability to gain entrance may have been due to

11058-407: Was brief, he left examples of nearly every literary genre of his day: lyric poetry, narrative poetry, the novel, the short story, the drama, the critical essay and even the personal letter. According to Vladimir Nabokov , Pushkin's idiom combined all the contemporaneous elements of Russian with all he had learned from Derzhavin , Zhukovsky , Batyushkov , Karamzin and Krylov : His work as

11172-511: Was chosen in 1891. His execution of both sculptures clashed with traditional tastes and met with varying degrees of disapproval from the organizations that sponsored the commissions. Still, Rodin was gaining support from diverse sources that propelled him toward fame. In 1889, the Paris Salon invited Rodin to be a judge on its artistic jury. Though Rodin's career was on the rise, Claudel and Beuret were becoming increasingly impatient with Rodin's "double life". Claudel and Rodin shared an atelier at

11286-468: Was confined to an institution for 30 years by her family, until her death in 1943, despite numerous attempts by doctors to explain to her mother and brother that she was sane. In 1904, Rodin was introduced to the Welsh artist, Gwen John , who modelled for him and became his lover after being introduced by Hilda Flodin . John had a fervent attachment to Rodin and would write to him thousands of times over

11400-517: Was confirmed in 2009, but became mired in disputes with officials and preservationists and concern grew that it would not be completed on schedule for 2018. After Moscow's chief architect Sergei Kuznetsov issued an ultimatum, demanding that Foster take a more active role in the project and prove his commitment by coming to the Russian capital within a month, Norman Foster's firm resigned from the project in 2013. In 2014, Russian architect Yuri Grigoryan, and his firm Project Meganom, were chosen to take over

11514-459: Was descended from a distinguished family of the Russian nobility that traced its ancestry back to the 12th century. Pushkin's mother, Nadezhda (Nadya) Ossipovna Gannibal (1775–1836), was descended through her paternal grandmother from German and Scandinavian nobility . She was the daughter of Ossip Abramovich Gannibal (1744–1807) and his wife, Maria Alekseyevna Pushkina (1745–1818). Ossip Abramovich Gannibal's father, Pushkin's great-grandfather,

11628-428: Was designed by Roman Klein and Vladimir Shukhov . Construction lasted from 1898 until early 1912, with Ivan Rerberg heading structural engineering effort on the museum site for the first 12 years. In 2008, President Dmitri A. Medvedev announced plans for a $ 177 million restoration. A 22 billion rubles ($ 670 million) expansion, developed by Norman Foster in collaboration with local architectural firm Mosproject-5,

11742-408: Was drawn to the work of Donatello and Michelangelo . Their work had a profound effect on his artistic direction. Rodin said, "It is Michelangelo who has freed me from academic sculpture." Returning to Belgium, he began work on The Age of Bronze , a life-size male figure whose naturalism brought Rodin attention but led to accusations of sculptural cheating – its naturalism and scale

11856-407: Was entrusted to nursemaids and French tutors, and spoke mostly French until the age of ten. He became acquainted with the Russian language through communication with household serfs and his nanny, Arina Rodionovna, whom he loved dearly and to whom he was more attached than to his own mother. He published his first poem at the age of 15. When he finished school, as part of the first graduating class of

11970-584: Was having a love affair. On 4 November, he sent a challenge to a duel to Georges d'Anthès , also known as Dantes-Gekkern. Jacob van Heeckeren , d'Anthès' adoptive father, asked that the duel be delayed by two weeks. With efforts by the poet's friends, the duel was cancelled. On 17 November, d'Anthès proposed to Natalia Goncharova's sister, Ekaterina. The marriage did not resolve the conflict. D'Anthès continued to pursue Natalia Goncharova in public and rumours that d'Anthès had married Natalia's sister just to save her reputation circulated. On 26 January (7 February in

12084-486: Was incensed by the untraditional proposal, but Rodin would not yield. In 1895, Calais succeeded in having Burghers displayed in their preferred form: the work was placed in front of a public garden on a high platform, surrounded by a cast-iron railing. Rodin had wanted it located near the town hall, where it would engage the public. Only after damage during the First World War, subsequent storage, and Rodin's death

12198-457: Was largely self-educated, and began to draw at age 10. Between ages 14 and 17, he attended the Petite École , a school specializing in art and mathematics where he studied drawing and painting. His drawing teacher Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran believed in first developing the personality of his students so that they observed with their own eyes and drew from their recollections, and Rodin expressed appreciation for his teacher much later in life. It

12312-433: Was on the handling of clay. George Bernard Shaw sat for a portrait and gave an idea of Rodin's technique: "While he worked, he achieved a number of miracles. At the end of the first fifteen minutes, after having given a simple idea of the human form to the block of clay, he produced by the action of his thumb a bust so living that I would have taken it away with me to relieve the sculptor of any further work." He described

12426-508: Was put in the coffin in evening dress, not in chamber-cadet uniform, the uniform provided by the emperor. The funeral service was initially assigned to St Isaac's Cathedral but was moved to Konyushennaya church. Many people attended. After the funeral the coffin was lowered into the basement, where it stayed until 3 February, when it was removed to Pskov province. Pushkin was buried in the grounds of Svyatogorsky monastery in present-day Pushkinskiye Gory , near Pskov, beside his mother. His last home

12540-417: Was rewarding. Through Turquet, he won the 1880 commission to create a portal for a planned museum of decorative arts. Rodin dedicated much of the next four decades to his elaborate Gates of Hell , an unfinished portal for a museum that was never built. Many of the portal's figures became sculptures in themselves, including Rodin's most famous, The Thinker and The Kiss . With the museum commission came

12654-621: Was set to music by David Tukhmanov , as well as Keep Me, Mine Talisman – by Alexander Barykin and later by Tukhmanov. Pushkin is considered by many to be the central representative of Romanticism in Russian literature although he was not unequivocally known as a Romantic. Russian critics have traditionally argued that his works represent a path from Neoclassicism through Romanticism to Realism . An alternative assessment suggests that "he had an ability to entertain contrarities which may seem Romantic in origin, but are ultimately subversive of all fixed points of view, all single outlooks, including

12768-594: Was such that critics alleged he had cast the work from a living model. Much of Rodin's later work was explicitly larger or smaller than life, in part to demonstrate the folly of such accusations. Rose Beuret and Rodin returned to Paris in 1877, moving into a small flat on the Left Bank . Misfortune surrounded Rodin: his mother, who had wanted to see her son marry, was dead, and his father was blind and senile, cared for by Rodin's sister-in-law, Aunt Thérèse. Rodin's eleven-year-old son Auguste, possibly developmentally delayed,

12882-477: Was the sculpture displayed as he had intended. It is one of Rodin's best-known and most acclaimed works. Commissioned to create a monument to French writer Victor Hugo in 1889, Rodin dealt extensively with the subject of artist and muse . Like many of Rodin's public commissions, Monument to Victor Hugo was met with resistance because it did not fit conventional expectations. Commenting on Rodin's monument to Victor Hugo, The Times in 1909 expressed that "there

12996-521: Was then the capital of the Russian Empire . In 1820, he published his first long poem, Ruslan and Ludmila , with much controversy about its subject and style. While at the Lyceum, Pushkin was heavily influenced by the Kantian liberal individualist teachings of Alexander Kunitsyn , whom Pushkin would later commemorate in his poem 19 October . Pushkin also immersed himself in the thought of

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