Ecstasies

The Royal Collection of Graphic Art at the SMK recently acquired a drawing by Auguste Rodin, thereby making yet another addition to its small collection of drawings by the French sculptor. Executed in watercolour and pencil, the drawing shows a woman’s torso and a vase – two bodies united in a single figure: a woman-vase. The figure is up to the waist in water, causing the space around it to appear liquid, formless, without boundaries. It has no clear-cut standpoint, no absolutely defined contours or identity: it is, quite literally, besides itself. Ecstatic.

Ecstasies is published in connection with the exhibition Fleeting Moments at SMK and offers an introduction to important aspects of Rodin’s drawings. It addresses Rodin as a draughtsman in and of his time, exploring both the elements that shaped him and those that he went on to shape. But, beyond the individual drawings and the period in which they were made, both book and exhibition also aim to open our eyes to what drawing is and can be. Rodin’s drawings can help us understand many by artists that preceded him and even more of those that followed.