The Burghers of Calais (seen at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden) 1884-88, Musée Rodin cast I/II in 1985 Bronze 82 ½  x  94  x  75 in. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor In 1884 Rodin submitted a maquette for a competition in Calais, France to erect a monument in honor of a local hero, Eustache de Saint-Pierre. This hero was part of a dramatic event that occured in Calais in 1347, during the Hundred Years War. Six leading citizens of Calais volunteered themselves as hostages to the English king Edward III in exchange for his lifting an eleven-month siege on their city. Eustache de Saint-Pierre was the first of six brave citizens to surrender. Rodin was greatly moved by the power of the story and offered to depict all six men for a modest sum. He began by studying the history surrounding the event as well as other artistic depictions of the burghers. Rodin's originality won him the commission for the monument and by 1885 he was completing a second maquette for the final approval of the Municipal Council. Two years before its completion, the commissioners of the monument disbanded. Rodin, however, finished The Burghers of Calais in 1888 and exhibited it to the public in 1889 at a joint exhibition in Paris with Impressionist painter Claude Monet. After the committee reconvened in 1893, Rodin began contemplating the placement of the monument. He wanted to exhibit the figures on the same level as the viewers, so that they could get a feeling of the heroes walking towards the king's camp. However, after much debate and against Rodin's wishes, in 1895 the city council arranged the figures on a single elevated base installed in front of the public garden. It was not until 1924 that the monument was moved to the Place d' Arms and displayed without a pedestal.