Auguste Rodin

Drawing from the Belvedere’s own holdings, the museum’s autumn exhibition will be devoted to Auguste Rodin and his relations to Vienna. As a corresponding member of the Vienna Secession, Rodin sent works to its exhibitions starting in 1898.

In 1899, the Secessionists acquired a bust by Rodin for today’s Belvedere. Other works purchased for the Belvedere’s collections likewise resulted from direct contacts between the Secessionists and Rodin. Within the framework of the Secession’s Ninth Exhibition in 1901, several principal works by Rodin were on display in the main room: The Burghers of Calais, Balzac, The Age of Bronze, and Eve. In 1908, Rainer Maria Rilke initiated a show at the Kunstsalon Heller in order to introduce Rodin to the public as a graphic artist. The Belvedere acquired two sheets shown in this exhibition.


During subsequent years, the Belvedere complemented its Rodin holdings by such significant works as a terra cotta design for the monument of Victor Hugo, the writer’s portrait bust, and Eve. These works will be presented next to selected loans and historical photographs in order to illustrate Rodin’s struggle for form on the one hand and concrete relationships among works on the other.