The European Experience

The Rodin Gallery
Rodin's Gates of Hell
Arguably the most famous statue
W hile
Suzon, 1875
Auguste Rodin
(1840-1917) was working
for Carrier-Belleuse at his
atelier, he sculpted this bust
of Suzon. It was immensely
popular, and many editions
were sold. Rodin had unfortunately sold the rights for
unlimited editions, which put
his sculpture in every household, but very little money in
his pocket.
The Thinker,
1880
Eventually, Rodin began to
Burghers
of Calais, 1884
earn commissions. This was
the age of monuments, and
every city was commissioning
monuments to commemorate
its history. This is a smaller
casting of a statue Rodin did
for the city of Calais to celebrate their self-sacrificing
burghers in the famous episode
of Henry V and the Battle of
Calais.
This statue is based on the tale
The Kiss,
1898
Head of a Young
Girl
from Dante's Inferno, and depicts
Paolo and Francesca's first adulterous kiss aroused by the story of
Lancelot and Guinevere. The lovers were condemned to be blown
about by winds in hell, eternally
together yet eternally apart. Upon
close inspection, one can see the
book that started all the trouble in
Paolo's hand.
Rodin's works began to take on a
Rodin is considered the bridge
between the romantics and
the modernists. The stone is
deliberately left raw in places,
the figure just emerging from
the material in a way that juxtaposes the delicacy of the face
with the reality of the stone.
in the world, The Thinker was intended to crown the Gates of Hell
as Dante in full period garb. However, Rodin felt clothing dated his
figure, and decided this powerful
nude figure truly represented every
man and became timeless.Today,
what was once seen as a figure
disparaging man for his powerlessness has now become a universal
symbol of hope and belief in man's
resourcefulness.
The
European Experience
Self- Guided Tour
Eternal Spring,
1881
romantic flair in his mid-life. These
figures were originally supposed to
represent Cupid and Psyche from
mythology, but Rodin decided he
wanted the statue to apply to all
lovers, and so renamed it for the
spring-like feeling people experience when they are freshly in
love.
"Mercury"
Josiah Wedgwood
The R.W. Norton Art Gallery
4747 Creswell Ave
Shreveport, Louisiana 71106
318-865-4201
www.rwnaf.org
The Tapestry Gallery
w"It is art that makes life, makes
Antoine Louis Barye (1795-1875), an
interest, makes importance...and I know
of no substitute whatever for the force and
beauty of its process."
--Henry James
Lion Crushing a
Serpent, 1832
The American History Gallery
The Prisons
1761
16th C. Tapestry
Josiah Wedgwood (1730-1795) was an
celestial globe and a terrestrial
globe dating to the 1600's are a part of our
permanent collection. The celestial globe
shows the stars in relation to earth and was
one of the tools used to train explorers for
navigation by the night sky. These globes
were created by Matthaus Greuter
(1566-1638) who used Dutch examples
for the design of his globes.
The Piranesi Corridor
Giovanni Piranesi (1729-1778) loved
innovator and genius when it came to pottery. Not only did he invent a new earthenware that impressed Queen Charlotte, thus
its name Queen's Ware, but he also invented
Jasperware, Parian Ware, Majolica, and
perfected a technique for working with
flaky basalt. Wedgwood made pottery
available to all but the poorest in England
and truly revolutionized the industry.
Portland Vase, 1875
the Roman ruins that littered his native
Italy. He had an eye for discerning the
original architectural design of a Roman
building, mostly leaning toward Gothic
and Romantic interpretations. When he
fell ill with a fever, he dreamed of The
Prisons, a collection of 16 etchings made
in 1761. These surreal visions influenced not only artists of his own time,
including roommate Fancisco Goya, but
generations of artists thereafter, including
the surrealist M.C. Escher and the German Shepherdess with sheep
Expressionists.
The Tapestry Gallery
These tapestries date to the 16th cen-
tury and actually hung in a castle. They
were commissioned by King Francois I
of France, who was considered France's
first Renaissance king. The cartoons
were drawn by the Italian artist Giulio
Romano (1499-1546), who was a student
of Raphael, and woven by Flemish weaver
Marc Cretif. They took 5 years to weave
and depict scenes from the Second Punic
War (218 to 201 BC).
innovative sculptor, was the father of Les
Animaliers, a movement of animal artists
who rejected neoclassical academic standards and created naturalistic sculptures
that blended Romanticism and realism.
Though his perfectionism precluded his
becoming commercially successful, his
influence on followers made him one
of the most influential artists of the 19th
century.
The Wedgwood Gallery
A
Celestial Globe
1636
The American Art History Gallery
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926) was born in
Mother and Daughter
both wearing large hats
Muletiers des
Pyrenees, 1882
The Portrait and Genre Gallery
The Portrait and Genre Gallery
The Pink Lady
Rosa Bonheur (1822-1899) was im-
mensely successful with her paintings in
the style of Les Animaliers. Her works
were considered so realistic, people
thought they could smell the animals and
the earth. She studied animals at every
opportunity and even kept a small menagerie in her sixth floor Parisian apartment.
She was also the first woman to be presented with the French Legion of Honor
for artistic achievement.
Jules Pierre Mene (1810-1879) learned
to work a foundry from his father, which
was crucial to his success later in life.
In 1837, he established his very own
foundry to make sculptures in the tradition of Les Animaliers. Comfortable in
a leather apron at the forge or in high
society's smallest circles, he was exceedingly personable and incredibly popular.
He was a huge commercial success, and
his stamp was used in castings well after
his death.
The Huntsman, 1879
Alfred Stevens (1823-1906), a Belgian
artist, was one of the favorites of the Paris
Salon, receiving the status of hors concours
which guaranteed his inclusion in every
year's exhibition. Though he remained a
mainstream artist focusing on painting
fashionable women in upscale interiors,
he was a friend of the Impressionists, and
eventually incorporated many of their
methods into his work, including broken
brushwork, vivid color, and the use of
Japanese motifs.
The Bonheur Gallery
The Bonheur Gallery
C harles Jacque (1813-1894) was a
member of the Barbizon School, a French
art movement that brought Romantic principles to landscape painting. He focused
on domestic animals and became known
as the "Raphael of pigs." Inspired by the
Forest of Fontainebleau, the Barbizon
painters contradicted academic standards
in several regards, believing that humble
subjects were worthy of painting and that
artists had the ability to recognize in nature
that which is beautiful and fit for artistic
treatment.
Philadelphia, but spent most of her life in
Paris. She was one of the original French
Impressionists and extremely influential in
the spread of Impressionism to America.
Though Impressionism is often associated
with landscapes, Cassatt was primarily a
figurative artist best known for her paintings of mothers and children, usually
completed in a single sitting.
The European Gallery
J acob van Ruisdael (1628-1682),
House by a Road
on a Wooded Slope,
1650
especially known for his cloudscapes,
was one of the Dutch "Old Masters"
and a contemporary of both Rubens and
Rembrant. Prefiguring Romanticism,
his works brought emotive power and
individual expression to landscape painting and later inspired both Hudson River
School and Barbizon painters. Currently,
this is the oldest painting on display in
the Gallery.