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2017 begeht die Kunstwelt das 100. Todesjahr von Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), des Schöpfers so gewaltiger und bahnbrechender Bronzeskulpturen wie "Der Denker" oder "Die Bürger von Calais". Weniger bekannt ist, dass Rodin den entscheidenden Schritt in die Moderne in einer anderen, sehr viel intimeren Kunstgattung und unter Ausschluss der Öffentlichkeit vollzog: Seine erotischen Aktstudien aus den letzten zwei Lebensjahrzehnten - Bleistiftskizzen und Aquarelle, die er manchmal Jahre später als Scherenschnitte neu kombinierte - sind Zeugnisse einer ganz neuen, vom Zeitstil und von allen bis dahin gültigen Schönheitsidealen und Moralvorstellungen unabhängigen Kunstauffassung. Der spontane, Momentaufnahmen vergleichbare Strich, die radikale Freiheit des Blicks und die Freizügigkeit der Motive begeisterten seinerzeit Rilke, Paul Klee und den Weimarer Museumsleiter Harry Graf Kessler, der die Ausstellung einiger ausgewählter Blätter 1906 allerdings mit seiner Entlassung bezahlen musste.

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With his erotic nude studies Auguste Rodin completed the artistic step towards modernity during the last two decades of his life. To a greater extent than in his sculptural oeuvre, he broke with art traditions in his pencil drawings, watercolors, and scissor cut drawings, establishing his total independence of prevalent beauty ideals and morals. His intimate paintings are characterized by expeditious strokes and the liberality of the motif. Contemporaries such as Rilke and Paul Klee immediately recognized the revolutionary artistic quality of the drawings. The price Harry Graf Kessler had to pay for exhibiting them in Weimar 1906 was high. As a result he was dismissed from his position as head of the Grand- Ducal museum. This book, a hardcover reprint of our 1995 classic, contains 105 watercolors and scissor cuts collected from museums and private collections from all over the world, including some "scandal" drawings from Weimar.

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Anne-Marie Bonnet is a French art historian and has held the chair of Art History at the University of Bonn, Germany, since 1997. Among various topics her scholarly focus is on sculpture, painting and photography in the 19th and 20th century.

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