“Two Hands” by Auguste Rodin

“Two Hands” was modeled by Auguste Rodin. A plaster version of this sculpture is inscribed “Hands of Rodin and Rose Beuret,” which suggests that these clasped hands are the hands of Rodin, the sculptor, and his lover. Rodin stated that he felt an:

“intense passion for the expression of the human hands.”

During his career, he modeled thousands of hands as small clay studies. For Rodin, the hand and the interplay of hands within groups of figures were expressive components of his sculptures.

Rodin imbued hands with a range of emotions, from anger and despair to compassion and kindness. He kept many hand clay studies in his studio, where he would contemplate them as sculptural forms in space.

When Rodin composed a new figure, he often experimented with different hands at varying angles to explore the possibilities of new expressive combinations.

This approach reinforced Rodin’s interest in the partial figure, and he felt that representations of parts of the body, such as the hand, are not necessarily dependent upon a complete figure to convey meaning.

Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin is generally considered the father of modern sculpture; he possessed a unique ability to model a complex and deeply pocketed surface in clay.

Many of his most notable sculptures were criticized during his lifetime. Rodin’s most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, he modeled the human body with realism and with personal character and physicality.

By 1900, he was a world-renowned artist and remained one of the few sculptors widely known outside the arts community.

Rose Beuret

Rose Beuret (1844 – 1917) was one of Rodin’s first models and his companion of fifty-three years. An uneducated woman from the countryside, she maintained Rodin’s studio in their youthful poverty, bore his son, and served him throughout her life.

Rodin began to live with a young seamstress Rose Beuret in 1864, and she was his companion for the rest of her life.

The couple had a son named Auguste-Eugène Beuret (1866–1934), but Rodin had a varying commitment to Rose. Rodin also had a passionate relationship with Camille Claudel, who was a younger sculptor.

Fifty-three years into his relationship with Beuret, Rodin did marry his lifelong companion, in the last year of both their lives.

The wedding was in January 1917, and Beuret died two weeks later. Rodin was ill that year and died in November of that same year, aged 77, at his villa in Meudon, Île-de-France, on the outskirts of Paris.

Six years later, Rodin’s secretary, published a book alleging that Rodin’s death was primarily due to cold and that he had no heat at his villa.

Rodin requested permission to stay in the Hotel Biron, a museum of his works, but the director of the museum refused to let him stay there.

A cast of The Thinker was placed next to Rodin’s tomb in Meudon; it was Rodin’s wish that the figure serves as his headstone and epitaph.

Camille Claudel

Camille Claudel (1864 – 1943) was a French sculptor who, in 1882, became a student of Alfred Boucher.

Boucher was a leading French sculptor, but when he moved to Florence, Boucher asked Auguste Rodin, his friend, to take over the instruction of his pupils.

This association began a long artistic association and a tumultuous and passionate relationship between Rodin and Claudel.

Around 1884, Claudel started working in Rodin’s workshop. She became a source of inspiration for him and acted as his model, confidante, and lover.

She never lived with Rodin, who was reluctant to end his long term relationship with Rose Beuret. In 1892 Claudel ended the intimate aspect of her relationship with Rodin, although they saw each other regularly until 1898.

There is a national Camille Claudel Museum in Nogent-sur-Seine, and the Musée Rodin in Paris has a room dedicated to Claudel’s works.

Two Hands

Title: Two Hands
Artist: Auguste Rodin
Year: Modelled in clay 1909; cast in bronze 1925
Place of Origin: France
Material: Bronze Casting
Dimensions: 18 x 20 7/8 x 12 3/4 inches (45.7 x 53 x 32.4 cm)
Museum: Rodin Museum, Philadelphia

Rodin Sculptures

Auguste Rodin

Name: François-Auguste-René Rodin
Born: 1840 – Paris, France
Died: 1917 (aged 77) – Meudon, France
Nationality: French
Notable work
- Eternal Springtime (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- Two Hands (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- The Cathedral (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- The Hand of God (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- The Thinker (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- The Gates of Hell (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- “The Gates of Hell” by Auguste Rodin (Kunsthaus Zürich)
- The Hand from the Tomb (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- The Sirens (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- Young Mother in the Grotto (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- Colossal Head of Saint John the Baptist (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- The Secret (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- The Thinker at the Rodin Museum, Philadelphia (Full Size)
- The Thinker at the Rodin Museum, Philadelphia (Medium Size)
- The Thinker ( Cleveland Museum of Art)
- The Thinker (The Legion of Honor)
- The Burghers of Calais
- Balzac (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
- Eve (Musée Rodin, Paris)
- Adam (Art Gallery of Western Australia)
- The Kiss (Musée Rodin, Paris)
- Orpheus and Eurydice (Metropolitan Museum of Art – MET)

Paris, France: The Rodin Museum

Hand Quotes

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“I don’t know where my road is going, but I know that I walk better when I hold your hand.”
– Alfred de Musset

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“As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”
– Audrey Hepburn

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“A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.”
– Michelangelo

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“Infinite striving to be the best is man’s duty; it is its own reward. Everything else is in God’s hands.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

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“The opportunity to secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself.”
– Sun Tzu

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“When women kiss it always reminds one of the prizefighters shaking hands.”
– H. L. Mencken

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“I don’t need a successor, only willing hands to accept the torch for a new generation.”
– Billy Graham

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“Ignorant men don’t know what good they hold in their hands until they’ve flung it away.”
– Sophocles

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