Baudelaire, Rodin & the "Crouching Woman" (A Speculation)

Detail of Je suis belle (I am beautiful), a 1882 sculpture (plaster)
by Auguste Rodin housed in the Musée Rodin in Paris; it was
originally entitled L'Enlèvement (Rape and/or Abduction).

"Mystérieuse faculté que cette reine des facultés ! ...C’est l’imagination qui a enseigné à l’homme le sens moral de la couleur, du contour, du son et du parfum. Elle a créé, au commencement du monde, l’analogie et la métaphore. Elle décompose toute la création, et, avec les matériaux amassés et disposés suivant des règles dont on ne peut trouver l’origine que dans le plus profond de l’âme, elle crée un monde nouveau, elle produit la sensation du neuf. Comme elle a créé le monde (on peut bien dire cela, je crois, même dans un sens religieux), il est juste qu’elle le gouverne."

("How mysterious is Imagination, that queen of the faculties! ...It is Imagination that first taught man the moral meaning of colour, of contour, of sound and of scent. In the beginning of the world it created analogy and metaphor. It decomposes all creation, and with the raw materials accumulated and disposed in accordance with rules one cannot find save in the furthest depths of the soul, it creates a new world, it produces the sensation of newness. Since it has created the world, (so much can be said, I think, even in a religious sense) it is proper that it should govern it.")

- Excerpt from La Reine des Facultés, one of Baudelaire's critical essays from his Salon de 1859 (French only). Inset right is the cover page from an online illustrated edition of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal, 1857, a .pdf in both French and English. (Note: downloads immediately.) For views of the many different covers of Baudelaire's masterpiece published over the years, see this page (click on the arrows).

"Je suis belle, ô mortels! comme un rêve de pierre,
Et mon sein, où chacun s'est meurtri tour à tour,
Est fait pour inspirer au poète un amour
Eternel et muet ainsi que la matière."

("I am beautiful, O mortals! as a dream of stone,
And my breast where each one in turn has bruised himself
Is made to inspire in the poet a love
As eternal and silent as matter.")

- The first 4 lines of Baudelaire's poem, "La Beauté," from Les Fleurs du mal inscribed at the base of Rodin's bronze sculpture Je suis belle (inset left). The original (1882) plaster was entitled L'Enlèvement (Rape, or Abduction), but when it was cast in bronze Rodin added the lines from Baudelaire's poem, and retitled the piece to Je suis belle. Mysteriously, he also altered the last line of Baudelaire's quatrain to read: "Etant alors muet ainsi que la matière," ("So being mute as matter"). (See here.)

"These lines might not seem fitting for a piece originally exhibited as The Rape in 1900. But this past title, the sculpture's current title and the poem inscribed on its base all speak to an ambiguity that characterizes much of the installation. I am Beautiful presents two figures—a more masculine standing figure and one that is more feminine grasped in the former’s arms. Are the two locked in an embrace, the female figure having leapt into her lover’s arms just moments before? Or is it darker, showing a scene of abduction?"

- Excerpt from Love and Lust at the Rodin Museum, a review of an 2017 exhibition at the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA).

"This two-figure group appeared in 1880 at the top of the righthand pilaster of The Gates of Hell. It is a combination of Crouching Woman  and Falling Man, whose back seems to arch under the strain of holding her in his outstretched arms. Also known as The Abduction, Carnal Love or The Cat, the group began its life as an independent sculpture circa 1882...

It illustrates Rodin’s use of assemblages, which became one of the characteristic features of his working method. The sculptor thus profoundly altered the meaning of Crouching Woman, a very open female figure whose posture may appear either obscene or erotic, by turning her over and folding her up into a closed ball, which the man lifts into the air like Atlas..."

- From the Musée Rodin page describing Je suis belle.  Inset right (above) is allegedly the first incarnation of the "Crouching Woman" Rodin created in 1880 for his Gates of Hell. (Note: I have also seen this same figure referred to as Andromeda.) There is also a second crouching female figure at the top of the left-hand pilaster (not shown). Lastly, there is a third figure: a separate piece Rodin created and actually entitled La Femme Accroupie (The Crouching Woman) in 1882 (inset right below), the same year he created L'Enlèvement (Je suis belle). Inset left is the "Falling Man," located directly beneath the female figure on the Gates of Hell. Rodin recycled the Falling Man again, as well, in 1882.

"Rodin had illustrated this poem with an image of a reclining woman encircled in the halo of her hair, presenting a much more serene interpretation of the poem. In the sculpture, however, the original title of The Rape as well as the opposition between masculine and feminine, vertical and horizontal, and round and erect shapes suggest a vision of the “rêve de pierre” as tainted by a certain violence and conveys a message that is more difficult to decipher."

- A reference to the poem "La Beauté," from the 1857 edition of Les Fleurs du mal Rodin illuminated with some of his own drawings in late 1887 and 1888.

"Have pity, cruel girl, I can’t go on, I can’t spend another day without seeing you. Otherwise the atrocious madness. It is over, I don’t work anymore, malevolent goddess, and yet I love furiously. My Camille be assured that I feel love for no other woman, and that my soul belongs to you. … Ah! Divine beauty, flower who speaks and loves, intelligent flower, my darling. My dear one, I am on my knees facing your beautiful body which I embrace."

- A reposted quote, taken from a 1886 letter Rodin wrote to Camille Claudell in the early days of their affair, currently at the Musée Rodin.

***

Well, my friends, It appears I'm continuing to embrace the inevitable online distractions I've (continuously) been presented with all month... while researching - and attempting to finish - the post-that-shall-not-be-named (again). But, I couldn't resist posting my latest "find" as it relates so deeply to my previous find.

Once again we are presented with a sculpture... this time a creation by Auguste Rodin (Fr) (inset left, as a dapper young dude), Camille Claudel's lover. I confess, when I first set eyes on the full version of Je suis belle (see photos above) I was appalled. Especially as the first example I discovered online was entitled "The Rape." In ways, I suppose, I'm still appalled, but, in trying to solve the mystery of Rodin's (possibly) most bizarre creation and, at the same time, coming across its connection to poète maudit, Charles Baudelaire, well, I am compelled to elucidate.

As it stands, it appears many critics find Je suis belle disturbing, but, none seem to grasp just exactly why. While they might admit the odd coupling seems "tainted by a certain violence" or, conveys "a message that is difficult to decipher," or, resort to adjectives like "darker," one gets the impression the critics are lost at sea. My favorite understatement: it "embodies a difficult notion of beauty."

I'll say it does! Because, if you look very closely at the women's face, she's obviously insensible. And, if you take into consideration the position of her body - her dangling limbs, and a compression unlikely to be achieved by a living body - she may, In fact, be a true homage to Baudelaire (and/or the Symbolists in general): that is, a fresh corpse...

Again, Je suis belle (I am beautiful). A slightly fuller view of the woman
than previously shown. Note her lifeless, dangling right arm and the unlikely
position of her right shoulder (behind her knee).

As it were, Rodin also changed a line of Baudelaire's "La Beauté" from:

"Est fait pour inspirer au poète un amour 
Eternel et muet ainsi que la matière.
(Is made to inspire in the poet a love
As eternal and silent as matter.")

to: "Est fait pour inspirer au poète un amour
Etant alors muet ainsi que la matière."
("Is made to inspire in the poet a love
So being mute as matter")

Basically, what he excised from the poem was the word "eternal." But, then, as the material world is not eternal but is subject to death (as is physical beauty), Baudelaire's intent was somewhat ambiguous to begin with. Below is the photo of the base of the statue showing the inscription.* (click to enlarge).

By entitling this statue I am Beautiful, however, Rodin's intent is even more ambiguous; misquoting Baudelaire did not alleviate the confusion. Was he attempting to be ironic by displaying a very obviously dead beauty? We have to remember that, originally, the sculpture was entitled Rape which, in the English language, is also defined as a poetic term meaning "abduction;" its implication being eventual rape. Other names for the same piece were "The Cat" and "Carnal Love." Was Rodin deliberately misleading the viewer?

To be accurate, Rodin actually altered his original modeling for the bronze version, so, the bronze (inset left) doesn't exactly resemble the original plaster piece shown previously ; especially the female face of the bronze figure, which is somewhat more refined. But, essentially, her expression has remained the same. That is, her features are without animation or expression. If she isn't dead, then, she must surely be unconscious. The interesting thing is that there are those online who seem to find the sculpture romantically erotic. We can assume these art lovers are either necrophiliacs or perceptually impaired.

It occurs to me, however, that, although Rodin chose "La Beauté" from Les Fleurs du Mal, perhaps, the lines he meant to use were from the poem "Une Charogne" (A Carcass), which, - although equally as ambiguous - seems to imply that, while matter decomposes, the "divine essence" is kept - and kept alive - by the Lover.

"– Et pourtant vous serez semblable à cette ordure, 
À cette horrible infection, 
Etoile de mes yeux, soleil de ma nature, 
Vous, mon ange et ma passion ! 
Oui ! telle vous serez, ô la reine des grâces, 
Apres les derniers sacrements, 
Quand vous irez, sous l’herbe et les floraisons grasses, 
Moisir parmi les ossements. 
Alors, ô ma beauté ! dites à la vermine 
Qui vous mangera de baisers, 
Que j’ai gardé la forme et l’essence divine 
De mes amours décomposés !"

("– And yet you will be like this corruption, 
Like this horrible infection, 
Star of my eyes, sunlight of my being, 
You, my angel and my passion ! 
Yes ! thus will you be, queen of the Graces, 
After the last sacraments, 
When you go beneath grass and luxuriant flowers, 
To molder among the bones of the dead. 
Then, O my beauty ! say to the worms who will 
Devour you with kisses, 
That I have kept the form and the divine essence 
Of my decomposed love !")

Rodin's illustration for Baudelaire's Une Charogne (A Carcass), one of the few he
executed for Les Fleurs du Mal, housed at Musée Rodin.

All of that being said, however, in comparison with the lifeless female figure, the male figure of Je suis belle expresses a most poignant passion... an almost desperate passion, or one bordering on despair. Initially, I wondered if the work was somehow connected with Camille Claudel... a farewell of sorts... a parting shot describing a fading love. But, after constructing a rough timeline,** I realized this could not be true; Camille and Rodin didn't meet till 2 years after the plaster original was exhibited.

1821 - Baudelaire is born.
1840 - Rodin is born.
1844 - Rose Beuret is born.
1862 - Maria, Rodin's older sister dies of peritonitis in a convent. Distraught, Rodin vows to give up his art. He enters a Catholic religious institute for a short time.
1864 - Claudel is born. Rodin begins his life-long relationship with Rose Beuret.
1866 - A son is born to Rodin and Rose; Auguste-Eugène Beuret (1866-1934), a future draughtsman and engraver, despite a severe childhood head injury.
1867 - Death of Baudelaire from syphilis.
1880 - Rodin sculpts Crouching Woman, Falling Man on his Gates of Hell.
1882 - Rodin sculpts La Femme accroupie.
1882 - Rodin sculpts Abduction (Carnal Love, The Cat) - (plaster). Some time prior to 1887, he casts it in bronze and renames it I am Beautiful.
1884 - Claudel and Rodin meet and become lovers.
1885 - Claudel carves her Femme accroupie.
1886 - Rodin's love letter to Claudell.
1887/88 - Rodin illustrates Les fleurs du mal.
1893 - Claudel carves Sakountala (marble).
1898 - Claudel and Rodin part. Claudell creates The Mature Age, which Rodin finds offensive, and an insult to Rose.
1905 - Claudel creates L'abandon (Vertumnus and Pomona).
1913 - Claudel is committed to an assylum.
1917 - Rodin and Rose marry. Rose dies 2 weeks later of pneumonia on Valentine's Day. Rodin dies in November of that year.
1943 - Claudel dies in the institution.

You will note one important event earlier in the timeline, however: The death of Rodin's sister, Maria, when he was 22 years of age. (Inset right is a photograph of Rodin taken in 1862). And I think this is significant. While it's impossible to say for certain if Je Suis Belle was actually a memorial - or an expression of love - the fact remains that he was traumatized to the point of giving up his true calling and withdrawing into a religious sanctuary after she died. Moreover, he was guilt-ridden. Apparently, he had introduced Maria to a suitor who proved to be untrue. Why he felt this contributed to her demise is hard to say, although it may have indirectly led to her presence in a convent at the time of her death.

Posted below is a photograph of Rodin and Maria taken two years before her death. They seem more like a married couple than they do brother and sister in this image. Which is not to say there was any semblance of incest involved in their relationship - I don't believe there was - but, the closeness - the "united front" of their alliance - is obvious.

The reality is, however, if Je Suis Belle was in any way a meditation on his sister's loss, it came 20 years after the fact. And, yet, in the end, it's hard to say. There is an underlying tension which exists in all of Rodin's work. It's as if his natural inclination to keep his personal life concealed is continuously thwarted by his artistic need to express his deepest passions. And, Rodin was a passionate man... just not the sort who could (formally) commit himself to any of the many women who passed through his life. (He was legally a husband to his life-long companion for a period of two weeks - when they were both in their 70s - before becoming a widower.) Rodin the myth is, perhaps, easier to decipher than Rodin the man. But, personally, had I been Camille Claudel or Rose Beuret, after viewing Je suis belle, I would've relinquished all hope of possessing his heart; it belonged to another. And, there is no more formidable a rival than the beloved who has died; something the devoted Rose may have intuited from the very beginning while Camille, to her misfortune, did not.

L'adieu (Farewell),1882. Rodin's last portrait of Camille.

_________________________________________

* Later on in my research I found this translation of Rodin's inscribed quatrain from "La Beauté" (below) which hardly seems authentic, nor - even with my limited understanding of French - seems like it could possibly be an accurate translation. You tell me. Putting words into Baudelaire's mouth seems like sacrilege!

"I am beautiful as a dream of stone, but not maternal;

And my breast, where men are slain, none for his learning,

Is made to inspire in the Poet passions that, burning,

Are mute and carnal as matter and as eternal."

** For a more extensive timeline of Auguste Rodin's life, try this source.

__________________________________________

Rainer Maria Rilke and Auguste Rodin, 1902.

"Why do I write you these verses? Not because I dare to believe that they are good; but it is the desire to draw near to you that guides my hand. You are the only man in the world who, full of equilibrium and force, is building himself in harmony with his work. And if that work, which is so great, so just, has for me become an event which I could tell of only in a voice trembling with awe and homage, it is also, like you yourself, an example given to my life, to my art, to all that is most pure in the depths of my soul."

- Rainer Maria Rilke from a letter to Auguste Rodin. (Letter and photograph sourced here.) Remarkably, Rilke served as a private secretary to Rodin in the early years of the 20th century.

***

Well, gang, another day, another Halloween, another speculation... and another post in which Rilke appears! It looks like the ghost of Rilke is competing with the ghost of Salvador Dali for our attention. Can anything be done?

No. ;-)

Enjoy the witching season while it lasts; it's becoming decidedly frigid out there... in more ways than one! Brrrr!