Rodin and Henry Moore

Today we attended a simply exquisite exhibition at Paris's Rodin Museum on the theme of "Henry Moore, The Studio".

This shot shows a cast of Auguste Rodin's "Burghers of Calais" on the right and two large fiberglass works by Moore in the middle distance. The gilt dome of Les Invalides dominates the background. The Rodin Museum's two buildings are on the left and right.

Henry Moore (1898-1986) was the greatest English sculptor of his time. The show includes sculptures, drawings, and a myriad of incidental objects that Moore collected as part of his working process.

Most of the sculptures were in plaster, in a full range of sizes, serving as preparatory to the finished works (which were usually in bronze). I had never seen more than a few works in plaster by Moore, but these were fascinating, and often very beautiful--more subtle and somehow gentler than works in bronze. As the accompanying brochure notes, "the plaster is confirmed here as the very material of creation, the closest to the hand of the artist."

A year ago: "The Giant of Tombe Issoire"