OCR Text |
Show Rodin Didn't Know He Was Modeling Saint Rodin had no head for titles for his work and was usually indebted to friends for the names by which his sculptures were known. For instance, this is the history of his "St. John the Baptist,". as told by him to Frank flutter, flut-ter, the art critic, and retold by flutter flut-ter in his book "Since I Was Twenty-Five." Twenty-Five." One morning things had gone very badly. Rodin could not get his model to take up a satisfactory pose, and having wasted several hours he gave up in despair and told the model he could go. The man strode across the room to fetch his clothes ins movement move-ment was admirable. "Stop !" cried the sculptor, "stay as you are, and hold it." Then he began feverishly to make a sketch. When the statue was finished Rodin had no idea but to exhibit it with the title "A Man Walking." but soon afterward in came his friend Octave Mirbeau, the critic and novelist novel-ist "Magnificent!" said Mirbeau. "I read your purpose: It's John the Baptist, Bap-tist, of course." "It was an idea," Rodin naively con fessed to Mr. Rutter, "and 1 wrote ft down at once for fear that 1 might forget it." Kansas City Times. |