Nude statue, seen from behind 1897 - 1907

Auguste-Louis Lepère made this woodcut print of a nude statue sometime in the late 19th, early 20th century. Imagine Lepère carving away at the wood, defining form through absence. I wonder what it was like for Lepère to create an image after Rodin? It must have been intimidating to tackle such an iconic subject. It’s a brave choice to show the statue from the back. We don’t see its face; we can’t quite read the emotion. But then, maybe the emotion is in the muscles, the twist of the torso, the way the light catches the shoulder blades. The statue itself emerges from what looks like a dark ground. The figure appears to strain against its confines. This tension makes me think of the way that artists always grapple with the past. You’ve got to admire Rodin, but somehow Lepère has to find his own voice within that conversation.