Rodin: Nature. Spontaniety. The essence of things.

Look at what I found today while searching for more articles about myself. A 1910 New York Times article about an interview I gave with a French writer.

I submit only to the requirements of nature. Handling the models as dolls, my colleagues are in danger of creating artificial, dead works. I catch the beating life which I see in nature, but I do not force it in any way....I want to reproduce in art only that which is free. I submit to nature in everything...I am very proud of being slavishly true to life.

I believe nature is dynamic, spontaneous, and that is why when I sculpt I do not pose my models. No, I let them walk around my studio, I let them do whatever they want, until they chance upon something which captures the essence of their natures, and then I get to work. Every one of my works must be filled with the model's true nature, even if it is "imperfect". The artistic impulse is the key.

Recall my advice to other sculptors after I became famous:

Your mind has to understand every surface as the outer limit of a volume pressing against it. Imagine shape as something directed towards you. All life has its origin in a centre, then it blosoms and unfolds outward from within. Exactly this way one can sense a mighty inner impulse in every beautiful sculpture. That is the secret of antique Art.

(Auguste Rodin, "Testament", quoted in Gsell, German edition, Diogenes, Zürich, p. 8, English translation)