Auguste Rodin
[Artist, b. 1840, Paris, France, d. 1917, Paris.]
Mere exactitude, of which photography and moulage [life casting] are the lowest forms, does not inspire feelings.
It is the artist who is truthful and photography which lies, for in reality time does not stop, and if the artist succeeds in producing the impression of a movement which takes several moments for accomplishment, his work is certainly much less conventional than the scientific image, where time is abruptly suspended.
I believe that photography can create great works of art, but hitherto it has been extraordinarily bourgeois and babbling.
(1908)
If the artist only reproduces superficial features as photography does, if he copies the lineaments of a face exactly, without reference to character, he deserves no admiration.
(1911)