Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette

PERSONAL:

Female.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, 2 rue Vivienne, 75002 Paris, France.

CAREER:

Curator. Musée Rodin, Paris, France, national heritage curator; Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art, Paris, France, managing director.

WRITINGS:

La Tradition Classique & l'Esprit Romantique: Les Sculpteurs de l'Académie de France à Rome, de 1824 à 1840, Edizioni dell'Elefante (Rome, Italy), 1981.

(With Anne Pingeot and Isabelle Lemaistre) Sculpture Française, XIXe Siècle, Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France), 1982.

(With others) Sculpture: The Adventure of Modern Sculpture in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Skira/Rizzoli (New York, NY), 1986.

(With Laure de Magerie and Anne Pingeot) Catalogue Sommaire Illustré Des Sculptures, Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication: Editions de la Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France), 1986.

(With Barry Bergdoll and Daphné Doublet) Les Vaudoyer: Une Dynastie d'Architectes: Catalogue, Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France), 1991.

(With Jean-Michel Nectoux and Véronique Alemany-Dessaint) Une Famille d'Artistes en 1900, les Saint-Marceaux, Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France), 1992.

Héraklès Archer: Naissance d'une Oeuvre, Paris-Musées (Paris, France), 1992.

(With others) La Sculpture Ethnographique: De la Vénus Hottentote à la Tehura de Gauguin, Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France), 1994.

(With François and Marie Bouchard) Bouchard, l'Atelier du Sculpteur: à la Découverte du Musée Bouchard, Association des Amis d'Henri Bouchard (Paris, France), 1995.

Mémoire de Marbre: La Sculpture Funéraire en France, 1804-1914, photography by Myriam Viallefont-Haas, Mairie de Paris: Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris (Paris, France), 1995.

(With Héléne Marraud) Rodin à Meudon: La Villa des Brillants, Musée Rodin (Meudon, France), 1996.

Rodin: Les Marbres de la Collection Thyssen: 8 Octobre 1996-5 Janvier 1997, Musée Rodin (Paris, France), 1996.

(Editor) 1898: Le Balzac de Rodin: 16 Juin-13 Septembre 1996, Musée Rodin (Paris, France), 1996.

Rodin, Musée Rodin/Flammarion (Paris, France), 1997.

(Editor) Rodin et l'Italie, De Luca (Rome, Italy), 2001.

Rodin: The Burghers of Calais, Musée Rodin (Paris, France), 2001.

(With others) Rodin: Sculpture and Drawings, National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia), 2001.

(Editor) Rodin en 1900: L'Exposition de l'Alma: 12 Mars-15 Juillet 2001, Musée du Luxembourg (Paris, France), 2001.

Rodin: The Gates of Hell, Musée Rodin (Paris, France), 2002.

Camille Claudel and Rodin: Time Will Heal Everything, Editions du Musée Rodin (Paris, France), 2003.

(With Christina Buley-Uribe) Auguste Rodin: Drawings and Watercolours, Thames & Hudson (New York, NY), 2006.

Rodin et le bronze (title means "The Bronzes of Rodin"), two volumes, Musée Rodin (Paris, France), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Antoinette Le Normand-Romain is a museum curator who has served as the national heritage curator primarily in charge of sculptures at Paris's Musée Rodin. The museum features the paintings, sculptures, and other artwork by the French artist François Auguste René Rodin. Le Normand-Romain then became managing director of France's Institut National d'Histoire de l'Art.

Le Normand-Romain has published extensively on sculpture and European art. She published her first book, La Tradition Classique & l'Esprit Romantique: Les Sculpteurs de l'Académie de France à Rome, de 1824 à 1840, in 1981. The following year she published Sculpture Française, XIXe Siècle with Anne Pingeot and Isabelle Lemaistre. In 1986 she published Sculpture: The Adventure of Modern Sculpture in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries with other contributors, as well as Catalogue Sommaire Illustré Des Sculptures with Laure de Magerie.

In 1991, Le Normand-Romain wrote Les Vaudoyer: Une Dynastie d'Architectes: Catalogue with Barry Bergdoll and Daphné Doublet. The following year she published both Une Famille d'Artistes en 1900, les Saint-Marceaux and Héraklès Archer: Naissance d'une Oeuvre, the former with Jean-Michel Nectoux and Véronique Alemany-Dessaint. In 1994, Le Normand-Romain published La Sculpture Ethnographique: De la Vénus Hottentote à la Tehura de Gauguin with other scholars, followed by Bouchard, l'Atelier du Sculpteur: à la Découverte du Musée Bouchard and Mèmoire de Marbre: La Sculpture Funèraire en France, 1804-1914 in 1995. She also published two books in 1996: Rodin à Meudon: La Villa des Brillants with Hélène Marraud and Rodin: Les Marbres de la Collection Thyssen: 8 Octobre 1996-5 Janvier 1997. The following year she published Rodin.

Le Normand-Romain published three books in 2001, including editing Rodin et l'Italie, Rodin: The Burghers of Calais, and Rodin: Sculpture and Drawings, with other scholars. In 2002 she published Rodin: The Gates of Hell. The following year Le Normand-Romain published Camille Claudel and Rodin: Time Will Heal Everything.

Le Normand-Romain published Auguste Rodin: Drawings and Watercolours in 2006 with Christina Buley-Uribe. Although Rodin is most famous for his sculptures, the book primarily covers Rodin's drawings and watercolors, which he considered the basis of his sculptures. Buley-Uribe and Le Normand-Romain each contribute an essay in the first section of the book. Le Normand-Romain's essay covers the early part of the artist's career, including his "black drawings" and those relating to The Gates of Hell. Buley-Uribe's essay discusses the significance of Rodin's drawings in his middle and late career, noting in particular his nudes and dancers that were influenced by Japanese, Javanese, Cambodian, ancient Egyptian, and ancient Greek cultural arts. The larger second section of the book highlights the museum's collection of drawings and watercolors in color and is organized chronologically, marking the first time many of these works have been published. In total several hundred illustrations of thousands of Rodin's drawings and watercolors are included in the book. A contributor to Publishers Weekly described the book as "handsome" aside from a few small style problems. The same contributor commented that the "well-produced color illustrations underscore the genius of an artist whose remarkable drawings and watercolors … deserve to be better known." Martha Smith, reviewing Auguste Rodin in the Library Journal, observed that the lack of an index "makes it difficult to locate works on specific topics." Smith, however, recommended the book. She found that other existing books on the artist do not encompass his "drawings in such depth and detail."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Art Journal, fall, 1990, Nancy Grove, review of Sculpture: The Adventure of Modern Sculpture in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.

Choice, May, 2007, M.T. Simms, review of Rodin, p. 1523; September, 2007, M.T. Simms, review of Auguste Rodin: Drawings and Watercolours, p. 86.

Espace, summer, 1998, review of Rodin; winter, 2005, Andre-Louis Pare, review of Camille Claudel and Rodin: Time Will Heal Everything.

Library Journal, February 15, 1987, Lynell A. Morr, review of Sculpture, p. 140; July 1, 2007, Martha Smith, review of Auguste Rodin, p. 89.

Publishers Weekly, January 22, 2007, review of Auguste Rodin, p. 174.