Editor’s Note: This story is part of Newsmakers, an ARTnews series where we interview the movers and shakers who are making change in the art world.To make his expressive sculptures of the human figure, Auguste Rodin often looked to the past. While his interest in ancient Greco-Roman sculpture served as a wellspring of inspiration, an often overlooked part of his artistic stimulation also came from ancient Egyptian art. Rodin was, in fact, a prodigious collector, amassing over 6,000 objects during his lifetime, 1,000 of which were Egyptian antiquities.This collection and its influence on his art is the subject of a new exhibition “Rodin’s Egypt,” which opens November 19 at NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW). The exhibition draws from 15 years of research by Bénédicte Garnier, a curator at the Musée Rodin in Paris who is guest curating the exhibition at ISAW. “Rodin’s Egypt” will feature some 65 objects, including selections from his collection as well as Rodin’s own sculptures, including his rarely seen assemblages that combine his plaster casts with some of the antiquities he collected. The exhibition marks the first time that Rodin’s Egyptian holdings will be exhibited in the US.ARTnews spoke with Garnier shortly after she arrived in New York to install the exhibition, which runs November 19 to March 15 at ISAW (15 E. 84th St.).This interview has been edited and condensed for concision and clarity.Naophorous (shrine) statue of Ra-Horakhty, 1550–332 BCE (New Kingdom – Late Period), Egypt, find-spot unknown. Musée RodinARTnews: How did you first get interested in researching Rodin’s connections to Egypt?Bénédicte Garnier: Rodin was a great collector. He collected more than 6,000 items between 1890 and his death in 1917. He didn’t collect only Egyptian art; he also collected Greek and Roman art and Asian and Middle Eastern art, as well as European art. I previously worked [on an exhibition] about Rodin’s link with Greek and Roman art, and after I was interested in beginning to study his collection of Egyptian art, which numbers more than 1,000 items. I had a collaboration with Paris-Sorbonne University to study this collection. For me, I was interested in studying the link between those items and Rodin’s art, as well as looking at how he collected all these items at that time, at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century.How did he come to acquire all of these antiquities?He bought them in Paris from dealers. It was quite common at that time—and much easier—to buy those items. He never went to Greece or Egypt. The trip was very long at that time. It was not as simple as today. And we know he often got sick on boats. [Laughs.] He asked some dealers to sell him some antiquities, and they would also propose him some items [to acquire]. He became a very famous collector. His collection has also been of interest to Egyptologists.Is there any specific focus within his collection of Egyptian antiquities?At the beginning, he was more interested in small items because he lived in Meudon [in Paris]. It was more a connection for his workshop. But after 1910, he began to make a contract with the French state to donate his collection and his sculptures to the French state, and in the exchange, the French state would buy the Hôtel Biron in Paris to make the Musée Rodin after his death. During this period, he decided to increase his Egyptian collection, and he started buying a lot of items, especially more important items, some of which are on view in this exhibition. Rodin was not just a collector—he was a compulsive collector. He accumulated a lot of items, that’s one characteristic of his collection. He collected a lot of small animals, deities with animals, and fragments, like the body without a head. His collecting is also linked with his own research; for example, The Walking Man [1907] by Rodin is a sculpture without arms and a head. He thought that life was there, even if the body was not complete.Votive statuette of Bastet in the form of a cat, 664–30 BCE (Late Period – Ptolemaic Period), Egypt, find-spot unknown.Musée RodinObviously, Rodin is now considered one of art history’s most important sculptors, but what his reputation like—and his financial means—when he started collecting?He was very famous at the end of his life, but he had a difficult career. He didn’t get into the École des Beaux-Arts; he applied three times but was rejected. At the beginning of his career, he worked for other sculptors. It’s only at the end of his life, around 1900 that he became famous. Then he had more money, and, of course, he could buy all these items. Like many students, when he was younger, he studied Greek and Roman art, but Egyptian art was not so fashionable at school for young artists then, even though the Louvre had a great collection of Egyptian art, for example. But by the end of the 19th century, Egyptian art became more important for young artists and modern artists at the beginning of the 20th century, like Picasso, Matisse, and Brâncuși. Rodin was one of those artists interested by Egyptian art at that time. When he was very old, he said that when he was young, he thought that Egyptian art was a barbaric art. But at the end of his life, he changed his point of view, and he recognized that Egyptian art can bring him new way of looking at the human body. The human body was a subject of his art. He wanted to be linked to the past, but he was one of the first modern sculptors interested by the fragment, ideas of hierarchy [within an artwork], and of course, Egyptian art.Auguste Rodin, Female nude seated on a lug handled vase, 1895–1910 (figure); 3500– 2900 BCE (Predynastic Period), Egypt, find-spot unknown (vase). Musée RodinYour research focuses on how what he collected impacted the art he created. How did looking at Egyptian antiquities in particular help him see and think about the body in new ways?I think that Rodin is more known by his taste for Greek and Roman art. It’s more evident that he was fond of this art—he was impregnated of Greek and Roman art by his study. It’s a new idea, I think, that he could be interested also by Egyptian art. His Egyptian collection is not very normal. At the end of his life, he made torsos. These are very synthetic and not as realistic [as his previous work]. He was inspired by Egyptian torsos, like the torso of King Nectanebo I, which you can see in the exhibition. In Egyptian art, the way of representing the body is one in which you can see the subject’s profile, face, and back at the same time. Another important part of this exhibition, which is not specific to only Egyptian art, is that Rodin would take Egyptian items and combine them with his own figures [into one work]. It’s almost like an early readymade, but, of course, before Marcel Duchamp made his readymades. Rodin took items of the past—sometimes Egyptian, sometimes Greek and Roman, sometimes from other countries, it depends—and he mixed those items and his own creations. It was a very new way of creating at that time.We’re also going to show in the exhibition the process of these assemblages, which is a very new way of showing Rodin, too. I hope that the American public will be interested in that process. In Paris [at the Musée Rodin], we try to show more this aspect of Rodin’s art. It’s important to say that Rodin didn’t show them when he was alive. It was just for the workshop—a study for the workshop. They are still not very well-known. The assemblage with vases, I think, will be one of the strength of the exhibition.Auguste Rodin, Balzac (Final Study), 1897. Musée RodinIs there a connection between Rodin’s famed sculptures of Balzac and his interest in ancient Egyptian art? Monument to Balzac is a monumental sculpture that is very simple, but he was very criticized for it. The work’s commissioner refused the work because he didn’t feel that it was a good representation of the writer. At that time, representing a writer like this without a pen and just wearing a big robe was not done. But Rodin tried to represent the strengths of Balzac and the power of his writing. He tried to translate that in sculpture. The work is maybe not inspired by Egyptian art, but after creating it, he said that he links the Balzac with the Colossi of Memnon in Egypt. Of course, they are very different, but I think the link is in the idea of “colossus”—the strengths of the sculptures. Balzac [final study, 1896] is one of the highlights of this exhibition.How is the exhibition organized and how did you select the Egyptian antiquities that will be on view?The first gallery is about his collection and the idea of accumulation, which will show how one could collect at that time before World War I and the link between Egypt and France at that time. In the second gallery, you will see the link between the collection and his artwork and the inspiration of Egyptian art on his own work. It’s a small selection from a huge collection, but we try to find, of course, the more important pieces from the collection, and the more meaningful ones to explain Rodin’s process and how he collected. We are also very happy to have three objects on loan from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which help make a great comparison with Rodin’s collection. “Rodin’s Egypt” is on view through March 15, 2026 at New York University’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World.