Lisa Behan

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From prudes to nudes

Musee Rodin on a sunny day in Paris was a delight. In a previous life the building was a nunnery, the French cleverly passed some law that allowed them to kick the nuns out. It became rundown, so artists started moving in. Rodin plea bargained his collection and chattels to save the building from demolition. He loved that the garden was so unkempt that it had reverted to forest. Today it is a polished landscape that makes a fantastic for his statues. Often his initial models for sculptures were nude, with later versions being draped and accessorised. Apparently he preferred to be left undisturbed when he had a female model, what would the nuns have thought?