Corps In-visibles: the exhibition around the monument to Honoré de Balzac at the Musée Rodin

Should sculpture faithfully represent a body, or adapt it to reflect society's impressions and visions? This is the question the Rodin Museum is seeking to answer in an exhibition on view from October 15, 2024 to March 2, 2025. Don't miss Corps In-visibles, an original investigation into the body and clothing!

When the sculptural representation of Balzac's body arouses controversy... The Musée Rodin presents a fascinating exhibition on the body and how it can be hidden, evoked and shown in art. In partnership with the Palais Galliera and with the support of theInstitut de France, the museum invites us to delve into this fascinating theme, with the exhibition Corps In-visibles, on view from October 15, 2024 to March 2, 2025.

This exhibition begins with a robe. But not just any dressing gown. The one sculpted by Auguste Rodin for his work depicting the writer Honoré de Balzac. This little-known piece invites us to reflect on the representation of the body, on the parts we wish to hide or highlight, on the ideals of beauty for each era. Nude or clothed, realistic or modified, the body is influenced by the artist's gaze and society's codes.

For this exhibition, the Musée Rodin has brought together a number of sculptures, as well as clothes and works of 19th-century fashion, and previously unpublished archive items. Sculptures and garments engage in a fascinating dialogue about the body, and what can be shown of it.

Part of the exhibition therefore focuses on Rodin's work, and his in-depth study of how to represent Balzac as faithfully as possible. The writer had a strong stature, which did not correspond to the idealized standards of society at the time: such an artist could not be portrayed as short and round... No matter that he was. So the sculptor turned to the robe, a fabric he could embellish with a thousand folds and drapes, to hide the proscribed human form. The artist's creative process prompts us to question these unrealistic imperatives, which placed greater value on form than on the qualities of the subjects. These words still resonate today.

The fashion pieces on display further illustrate these reflections: depending on the designer, the garment and the wearer, different parts of the body can be hidden or highlighted. However, there are always bodies that remain invisible, marginalized, because they are deemed unattractive according to society's arbitrary criteria.

A contemporary sculpture by Thomas J. Price brings the discussion up to the present day: his work depicts a black woman wearing a jogging suit. A woman who is anonymous, but on show for all to see, contrasted with Rodin's Balzac, which had to be modified to please everyone. Two centuries of difference between these two works, two centuries of evolution on art, the body and beauty.