Auguste Rodin is getting called out for his sexist ways by reporters covering Tate Modern’s current show "The Making of Rodin." And by the feelings of the woman that he showed in his most famous work, "The Kiss," he knew better. (More about the press coverage in a moment).

As time goes by, is a kiss still just a kiss?

"The Kiss" is not like that other famous smooch in Times Square on VJ-Day when a celebrating sailor grabbed a woman off the street for a kiss. Rodin’s version indicates that he was alert to a woman’s desires by depicting her as an eager partner.

Rodin gets a shout-out as good relationship material.

According to British art critic Alistair Sooke, broadcasting on the BBC in 2015, Rodin was a considerate lover. Sooke quoted art writer Catherine Lambert saying that “Rodin was one of the first artists to be curious about the sexual experience of women.” But it’s not known how she came by that information. Most art writers think otherwise.

Tate Modern curator acknowledged the sculptor’s sorry ways with women

Yahoo quoted Tate exhibit curator Achim Borchardt-Hume contending that Rodin paid little attention to the state of mind of his mistress Camille Claudel: “The conventional relationship between male artist and female model was starkly unequal.”

But while the curator made Rodin’s callousness sound like a norm in the artist-model relationship, Claudel was more than a model to him.

Besides sharing his bed for 15 years, and posing for his work like The Kiss, she was also an accomplished sculptor who helped him sculpt.

The Auguste-Camille story ended badly

Art historian Olivia Land, writing for The Collector, noted that Rodin, “deeply moved” by Claudel’s sculptures, let her make “contributions to some of his most monumental works” (which he then signed as his own).

His insensitivity to Claudel took its toll, and she ended up in a psychiatric hospital for the remainder of her life.

Giving credit where credit is due

Now as I write this, I’m wondering who really got the idea to picture a woman so intent in "The Kiss." Given that Claudel posed for the work, was she the one sensitive to the wanting?

The London display gets a bad review

Laura Cumming, reviewing the Rodin show for The Guardian, saw his disregard of women reflected in the way that Tate Modern presented the exhibit examples. “A couple of casts of Camille Claudel’s head, plus a quick reference to their love affair, is scarcely sufficient for this great sculptor for her influence on Rodin.”

Another clue to who really sculpted the big buss

"The Kiss" looks like something Claudel would do. Rodin was usually given to using broken surfaces, which lent his work the look of a preliminary sketch. But that’s not what you see here. You see surface smoothness, which is in marked contrast to the rough-hewn base on which the sculpture sits. All of this leads me to think that Rodin was a cad not only in his private life but also in the workplace.
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