Born to modest means on November 12, 1840, François-Auguste-René Rodin was the second child of Jean-Baptiste Rodin and Marie Cheffer. He was somewhat shy and very nearsighted, which proved a hindrance in his early academic work.  His father tried to help him academically by sending him to his uncle's boarding school in Beauvais in 1851. He remained there for three years, but still had difficulty reading and writing, and the time approached for him to learn a trade.

Having always had a serious interest in drawing – he had his first lesson when he was ten years old – Rodin enrolled at the École Impériale de Dessin, a government school for craft and design (also called the "Petite École" or "Small School" to distinguish itself from the more prestigious École des Beaux-Arts or "School of Fine Arts”).  He kept busy,  attending classes at La Petite École, visiting museums to study antique sculpture, and attending the Gobelins tapestry manufactory where he also studied drawing. During these early years, he discovered clay and deemed himself a very capable and promising sculptor. Although at the age of seventeen he was awarded two prizes for drawing and modeling, Rodin was unable to gain admittance to the prestigious and conservative École des Beaux-Arts, which rejected him three times.