Just Okay
Going Through Old Notebooks Part 20: “Patience is also a form of action.” —Rodin
On a visit to the Musée Rodin a few years ago, I was reminded of something: the great sculptor Auguste Rodin once dabbled in landscape painting. He lived in Belgium for seven years in his thirties, and would often take walks in the countryside. This thoroughly Parisian young man—an aspiring artist, of course—was learning to enjoy nature. It was the 1870s, his friends were Impressionists, and so, using loose, daubing brushwork, Rodin sought to capture the pastoral settings around him.
My favorite thing about these paintings by Rodin is that, while they are certainly not terrible, they aren’t all that remarkable either. Not when you consider Rodin’s colossal artistic talents in other media. His sculptures are transcendent, revolutionary. His informal drawings of nudes are an arresting tangle of pure form and eroticism. But his landscape paintings? I mean…meh? Considering that this is Rodin we’re talking about, they’re sort of just okay.
