Rose Beuret and Auguste Rodin: Fifty Years with a Sculptor Who Became a Genius

8 December 2006

In the second half of the nineteenth century many artists changed their preference from professional models to non-professionals, who looked and moved in a natural way. Rose Beuret was a peasant girl from Haute-Marne who became Rodin’s mistress, helping in the studio and modelling for many works between 1865 and 1880. Once Rodin embarked on the Gates of Hell, however, Camille Claudel was brought into the atelier and their famous affair ensued, rendering Rose’s place in Rodin’s life obscure for the rest of the century. After 1900 when Rodin established the exhibition of his lifetime’s work at his home in Meudon, people from all over the world came to see his museum. But Meudon was also Rose’s home and many visitors recorded their impressions of Rodin’s ‘old mistress’. Dr Ruth Butler, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts and author of the authoritative biography of the artist, explores what it was like for Rose to live alongside a ‘genius’ for half a century.

Reynolds Room, Royal Academy; 6.30–7.30pm unless otherwise stated; £14/£6 students (incl. exhibition entry & drink), £10 (incl. a drink)

• Royal Academy of Arts