Spotlight: Rodin - Bronze Age

The French sculptor Rodin (1840-1917) is renowned for the marriage of intimacy and grandeur that he brought to public sculpture, and was a pivotal figure in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. Some of his works are so much a part of our visual culture that it's almost impossible to look at them with anything other than jaded eyes. Indeed, The Kiss, situated in the corner of a landing at Tate Modern, looks more like an advertisement than an artwork, though what it would be promoting I'm not sure.

The French sculptor Rodin (1840-1917) is renowned for the marriage of intimacy and grandeur that he brought to public sculpture, and was a pivotal figure in the transition from the 19th to the 20th century. Some of his works are so much a part of our visual culture that it's almost impossible to look at them with anything other than jaded eyes. Indeed, The Kiss, situated in the corner of a landing at Tate Modern, looks more like an advertisement than an artwork, though what it would be promoting I'm not sure.

As such, an exhibition which takes a fresh look at an old master is to be warmly welcomed, and the one that opens next Tuesday is all the more extraordinary for being a selling show. It includes moquettes for some of the most famous works such as The Burghers of Calais and Monument to Balzac, as well as casts of the lesser-known studies with which he surrounded himself towards the end of his life. Quite how Gul Coskun persuaded the Musée Rodin in Paris to let her have such a piece of their family silver is a mystery, but she is to be congratulated for her efforts in producing such a fresh and revealing exhibition.