Auguste Rodin Draws Blind: An Art and Psychology Study

Late in his life Rodin produced many thousand ‘instant drawings’. He asked models to make natural energetic movements, and would suddenly draw them at high speed without looking at his hand or paper. To help understand his ‘blind drawing’ process, eye and hand movements of art students were tracked while they drew blind, copying complex lines presented to them as static images. The line shape was correctly reproduced, but scaling could show major deficiencies not seen in Rodin’s sketches. We propose that Rodin’s direct vision-to-motor strategy, coupled with his high expertise, allowed him to accurately depict in one sweep the entire model, without “thoughts arresting the flow of sensations.”