Early Work 

Rodin was in his mid-30s before he began showing sculpture under his own name. Before this he worked for well-known sculptors as one of a team of craftspeople who produced mainly decorative – often architectural -- commissions. 

 

Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose 

Originally modeled in 1863–64

Size: 12 ½ x 7 ¼ x 6 inches 

Rodin considered The Man with the Broken Nose to be his first major work. He began the portrait in 1863, intending to submit it to the Paris Salon as his debut. He hired a neighborhood handyman, nicknamed Bibi, to model for him. He was drawn to Bibi’s rough features and wanted to depict him as he was—broken nose and all. He combined these with some conventions of Greek sculpture: blank eyes and Classically modeled hair. Yet Rodin’s piece remained innovative in its expressive naturalism – as opposed to the idealism of Classical sculpture.

The Man with the Broken Nose became The Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose when the cold temperature in Rodin’s poor studio caused the back of the head to freeze and break off. Rodin, favoring the element of chance, wanted to exhibit the portrait bust as it was and he  continued to work on it for over a year before finally submitting it to the Salon. Much to his disappointment, the Salon jury rejected the work twice (1864 and 1865). Nevertheless, Rodin drew inspiration from The Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose. He created another version for The Gates of Hell and used it in other subsequent works. 

 

 

The Age of Bronze (Reduction) 

Originally modeled in 1876, reduced in size about 1903–04

Size: 26 x 8 ½ x 7 inches 

In 1875 Rodin began work on a life-size male nude, intending to submit it to the Salon. Originally titled The Vanquished, the figure was based on those of ancient Greek and Roman art. Rodin’s figure was more natural, however, lacking the exaggerated muscles of Classical sculpture. Rodin exhibited The Vanquished first in Brussels. Here two critics were suspicious of his exquisite modeling and accused him of making it by putting clay over a live body. These rumors continued when Rodin submitted the piece, now titled The Age of Bronze, to the Paris Salon of 1877. Although it was praised for its beauty, the work was rejected by the jury, and Rodin was forced to defend himself against similar accusations. 

 

 

The Call to Arms 

Originally modeled in1879 

Size: 44 ½ x 22 ½ x 15 inches 

In 1879 Rodin entered a competition to design a monument to honor the citizens who participated in the defense of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71). Rodin’s submission portrayed a winged female figure rising above a wounded warrior who appears to be sinking to the ground. The impassioned female figure was to be seen as a symbol of liberty set against the pathos of the dying warrior. The movement, expression, and symbolism are clearly powerful; however, the conservative competition jury was looking for a more realistic portrayal, one that captured the sentiment of the event and did not show the warrior in a non-heroic pose. Although Rodin’s innovative design was not chosen for the monument, The Call to Arms was eventually cast for a monument at Verdun in 1920, commemorating the French soldiers of World War I. Rodin returned to the winged female figure in a later work, The Spirit of War, which portrays the figure without the collapsing warrior. 

 

 

Saint John the Baptist Preaching 

Originally modeled about 1880 

Size: 19 ¾ x 11 x 9 ⅛ inches 

Partly to exonerate himself from the allegations surrounding The Age of Bronze, Rodin made his next figure larger than life-size. However his Saint John the Baptist Preaching did not include the Saint’s more common attributes – hair-shirt, leather belt, cross and scroll – but instead presented an unidealized, awkward figure. Contemporaries found Rodin's nude Saint John improper, ugly, and shocking. 

 

 

The Gates of Hell and derivatives

The Gates of Hell (1880 – about 1900) was Rodin's most ambitious work. Commissioned to be the entrance for a (never-built) museum of decorative arts, The Gates (about 21 feet or 640 centimeters tall) features hundreds of figures modeled in low to high relief and even in-the-round. The imagery in Rodin’s Gates was inspired by Dante's Inferno (part of The Divine Comedy, written about 1308, an epic poem about the author’s fictional journey through Hell and Purgatory to Paradise). With Dante as his inspiration, Rodin created an environment of tormented souls; it presented not only the underworld but also the suffering of humankind in general. 

The form of Rodin's Gates was inspired by the long tradition of decorated, compartmentalized church doors, specifically the doors to the Baptistery in Florence. These, called The Gates of Paradise, were designed between 1425 and 1452 by the Italian Renaissance artist Lorenzo Ghiberti. In his Gates of Hell, Rodin abandoned the stacked-boxes, narrative structure of Ghiberti’s traditionally-arranged doors, and instead created a free-form environment in which tormented souls float and weave in a surging arrangement. 

Early on, Rodin made the figures that populated The Gates also as free-standing, independent sculptures, sometimes reduced and/or enlarged in size. These free-standing pieces, separate from the original Gates, took on new meaning. Among the most well-known of these independent pieces are The Thinker, The Kiss and The Three Shades. This practice of using pieces from one project in other ways, and of producing them in various sizes, was part of Rodin’s creative method from 1880 onward. 

During Rodin's lifetime The Gates of Hell was neither shown in its entirety nor cast in bronze. Since his death, according to his wishes, casts have been made. One was commissioned by the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation; an award-winning video of the process, produced by Iris Cantor and available through Kultur International Films, LTD, provides more information about this work. 

 

 

The Gates of Hell, Third Maquette 

Originally modeled in 1880

Size: 43 ⅝ x 29 1/16 x 11 ¾ inches 

Rodin did many studies for The Gates of Hell. He made hundreds of drawings of individual characters and scenes and produced several maquettes (small models used as sketches) to lay out the overall composition. The first maquette is only ten inches high and does not contain any figures, but rather is just a general outline literally thumbed into the clay. By the third, last maquette, the composition is still rough and summary, however several figures are recognizable as ones that appear in the final work. (Some, such as The Thinker, are as they appear in the The Gates. Others are greater challenges to find:  If you look closely, Paolo and Francesca and the figures of The Kiss are visible on the lower left side.) 

 

 

The Thinker 

Originally modeled in 1880, reduced in 1903 

Size: 14 ¾ x 7 ⅞x 11 ⅜ inches 

Resting on the tympanum (the horizontal panel above the double doors), The Thinker is the focal point of The Gates and subsequently has become perhaps the most well-known sculpture of all time. The athletic-looking figure shows a man in somber meditation yet whose muscles strain with effort – possibly to signify a powerful internal struggle. Rodin initially referred to the figure as Dante, but it has evolved into a more symbolic representation of creativity, intellect, and perhaps above all, the act of thinking.

 

 

The Kiss 

Originally modeled about 1881-82

Size: 34 x 17 x 22 inches 

The Kiss is one of Rodin's most widely admired works. It was originally conceived to be part of The Gates of Hell, but was not incorporated as such into the final version. The people in The Kiss are Paolo and Francesca, from the Second Circle of Hell in Dante's Inferno. Their story was a popular subject of painting and sculpture during the nineteenth century:  While reading the tale of Lancelot and Guinevere, Paolo and Francesca exchange glances and realize their mutual lust. Just like Camelot’s lovers, Paolo and Francesca give in to passion and embrace. The couple is immediately discovered and killed by Francesca’s husband, who is also Paolo’s brother. 

Rodin captured the moment when the doomed pair realize their passion. His sculpture defied tradition by showing them unclothed instead of in Florentine dress. First exhibited in 1887, this passionate depiction of romantic love shocked viewers, primarily because of Francesca’s shameless awareness of her sexuality. Within a year, however, the sculpture was accepted and admired by the French and the government commissioned a marble version (now in the Musée Rodin, Paris). 

 

 

The Three Shades 

Originally modeled in1880-1904, single figure conceived about 1880, group composition by 1904

Size: 38 ¼ x 37 ½ x 20 ½ inches 

Standing at the very top of The Gates of Hell, the Shades (a shade is a ghost or phantom) gesture downward, heads lowered and arms extended, appearing despondent and weary. These are three identical casts of the same figure, positioned at slightly different angles.  Rodin’s contemporaries believed The Three Shades spoke Dante’s warning, inscribed above the gate to Hell in the Inferno:  “Abandon every hope, ye who enters here.” 

Rodin’s Shade originated as a variation of his Adam. After an 1875 visit to see Michelangelo’s work in Italy, Rodin began a piece greatly influenced by Michelangelo’s painting on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, The Creation of Adam. Rodin altered the pose of Michelangelo’s reclining figure, making his Adam upright with his hand gesturing downward instead of outward. In using three figures together Rodin knew they would each lose their identity as Adam and become instead Shades, shadows of the living dead. Perhaps to symbolize their powerlessness, Rodin also deprived the shades of their right hands and represented their left hands as simply modeled fists. (The larger version of The Three Shades however, does have the right hands intact and the left hands modeled in greater detail.) 

 

 

Eve (small version)

Originally modeled in1883 

Size: 28 x 10 x 10 1/2 inches 

This reduced Eve is a small version of one that would have joined Adam in front of The Gates of Hell, had the project been completed. Rodin used a live model for Eve. It is reported that as Rodin worked from the model to the figure, he was astonished that every day he had to modify the belly. He soon learned the reason behind this: the model was pregnant. Rodin said the pregnancy gave the sculpture character. However, when the model became too uncomfortable to pose, his life-size Eve remained unfinished; he worked on the smaller version after setting the life-size version aside.

This version has a smoother, more sensual body than does the larger one. Both versions have their heads bowed and arms folded covering their breasts. The pose suggests a modesty or shame that could easily be associated with Eve. 

 

 

Studies for the Monument to the Burghers of Calais 

The Burghers of Calais was commissioned by the French city of Calais and represents a dramatic, patriotic event of 1347, during the Hundred Years' War. Six leading citizens volunteered to be hostages to the English king, Edward III, in exchange for his lifting an eleven-month siege of their city. Rodin was to commemorate this event by designing a monument for the town square. 

Rodin completed many studies before deciding on his final version. From 1886 to 1889 he modeled the figures nude before clothing them for the final monument. Fragments – hands and heads – and nude studies all captured aspects of what Rodin was striving to achieve. Later he continued to work with these figures, creating enlargements and reductions and incorporating partial figures into other compositions. 

Rodin’s final version of The Burghers of Calais defied artistic traditions for portraying heroism. Instead of depicting these citizens as lofty and selfless, he showed each at the moment he realized the limit of his own resolve to sacrifice himself to save his fellow citizens. The figures are barefoot, wear sackcloth, and their individual responses to their plight are evident in their various tormented or despondent poses and gestures. Rodin’s shift in focus from triumphant glory to human suffering changed the form and meaning of the public monument in the late nineteenth century. It was, indeed, as revolutionary as Maya Lin’s Vietnam Veterans Memorial has been in our time. 

 

 

The Burghers of Calais (First Maquette) 

Originally modeled in 1884 

Size: 23 ¾ x 14 ¼ x 12 5/8 inches 

In this initial study Rodin depicted the men bound together with rope atop a high base, making their heroism appear all the more dramatic. Rodin showed all six men taking their first steps toward the camp of Edward III, thereby making them a generalized symbol of selfless, patriotic heroism. His design defied nineteenth-century academic standards, which had traditionally concentrated on a single heroic figure, even if a group of people had participated in the event.

 

 

Jean de Fiennes (Clothed) 

Originally modeled in1885-86 

Size: 82 x 48 x 38 inches 

Rodin assumed Jean de Fiennes was the youngest of the six burghers and, as was the artist’s custom, modeled several versions of Jean de Fiennes before deciding on the final figure. The clothed figure retains the pose of earlier studies, however his hair is now fuller and his feet are visible as though stepping forward. The burgher’s expression is hesitant– as if he has not quite accepted his imminent fate. 

 

 

Pierre de Wiessant (Reduction) 

Originally modeled about 1886-87, reduction made in either 1895 or 1899

Size: 18 ¾ x 6 ½ x 6 ⅜ inches 

Rodin created many studies of Pierre de Wiessant. He experimented with various body types and poses. In the final monument Pierre de Wiessant looks over his shoulder, his hand extended as if in despair. His face shows great anguish and the intensity of his emotions make him appear to be withdrawn from the other figures.  This Pierre differs greatly from the first maquette, which shows him staring outward with his hand pointing to himself, perhaps questioning his impending fate. No longer questioning, the young burgher here seems to look inward, as if painfully beginning to accept the inevitable. 

 

 

Monumental Head of Pierre de Wiessant (Enlargement) 

Originally modeled about 1884-85, enlarged 1909 

Size: 32 ⅜ x 19 ½ x 21 inches 

Rodin did many studies to explore the character and pose of each burgher before deciding on the details of  the final monument. Among these were head studies, focusing on the depth of emotion reflected by their faces. The Monumental Head of Pierre de Wiessant is an enlarged version of the final head study of this burgher, one of the two youngest. Rodin was interested in the depiction of youth in the face of death. 

 

 

Studies for the Monument to Balzac 

In 1891 Rodin was commissioned by the Societé des Gens de Lettres (Society of Men of Letters) to create a monument to Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), one of France's most influential and beloved writers. For the next seven years Rodin struggled to find a way to portray Balzac that would be accurate physically and would also symbolize the writer's creative genius. Balzac had been dead for forty years, so Rodin also faced the challenge of creating a likeness of a man he had never seen. He consulted photographs, a medium in its infancy in Balzac’s time, and did other research. For instance, he ordered a suit from Balzac's tailor in the writer’s measurements in order to visualize his considerable size and girth.

During Rodin’s struggle to devise a compelling likeness of Balzac, he completed at least fifty studies; some convey Balzac's actual appearance and others are more subjective and abstract. 

In 1898 Rodin presented the final model for the Balzac monument to the Society of Men of Letters. The nine-foot plaster, modern in its abstraction, was met with outrage, disbelief, and ridicule, and as a result the Society rejected it. Deeply hurt by the criticism, Rodin refused to allow the sculpture to be cast in bronze during his lifetime. 

 

 

Balzac in Dominican Robe 

Originally modeled in 1891-92

Size: 41 ¾ x 20 ⅛ x 20 inches 

His hefty build, large potbelly, and short legs offered Rodin a challenge and he experimented with different ways to depict Balzac’s famous physique. The solution was to clothe Balzac in a robe (Balzac was known to wear a loose-fitting robe while working at night) that would conceal his hefty shape and thus direct the viewer’s attention to Balzac’s head. One of several robed studies, Balzac in Dominican Robe portrays the author surrounded by his main attributes – books and manuscripts – and recalls an ancient convention, perhaps adding a timeless appeal to the work. 

 

 

Nude Study of Balzac as an Athlete (Type ‘F’) 

Originally modeled about 1896 

Size: 35 ⅝ x 15 ¾ x 14 ⅛ inches 

Rodin’s most symbolic study of Balzac, this piece depicts the author as having exaggerated musculature and a young and virile body. In this controversial image Rodin associated intellectual and artistic creativity with sexual prowess, all attributes for which Balzac was equally famous. 

 

 

Monumental Head of Balzac (Enlargement) 

Originally modeled in1897 

Size: 20 ¼ x 20 ⅞ x 16 ⅜ inches 

Many of the studies for the Monument to Balzac were only Balzac’s head, as Rodin felt it was important to emphasize the heads of people of high intellect. The Monumental Head of Balzac is an enlargement of the final head created for the Monument, which was life-sized.  In this version, Balzac’s exaggerated features reveal varied expressions when viewed in changing light and from different points of view. 

 

 

Partial Figures 

Rodin insisted that a part of a figure, such as a torso or a hand, could by itself convey meaning and thus was a complete work of art.  Throughout his career he was inspired and energized by the power and formal beauty he found in the fragments. 

Rodin had many sources for his fragments.  Early in his career his studios were primitive and plagued by extremely cold temperatures in winter, temperatures that sometimes caused his clay sculpture to freeze and break into parts. Throughout his career, like all sculptors he frequently destroyed works in progress, which also left him with fragments. Finally, the method he used to cast his sculpture in bronze included using plaster casts. These casts too became sources for fragments. 

Rodin believed the fragments – like torsos or hands – were not dependent on their original contexts for their meanings. Throughout his career he preserved broken pieces with the thought of using them later in new sculpture.  Sometimes he used these pieces at their original size and at other times he had them reduced or enlarged. 

Rodin was particularly fascinated by the human hand. He modeled thousands; they ranged from naturalistic studies to powerful symbolic compositions. Many were rapid clay sketches and captured the fluid, expressive nature of the hand. At times they conveyed spiritual or symbolic content. In his complete figures the hands are often defining elements that greatly extend the meaning of the work. 

These partial figures are one of the great innovations of sculpture at the beginning of the twentieth century. Other artists, like Maillol, Brancusi, Archipenko, and Matisse, all learned from Rodin’s experiments with fragments.

 

Monumental Torso of the Walking Man 

Originally modeled about 1905

Size: 43 ⅓ x 26 ¾ x 15 inches 

Rodin’s early training as an artist included drawing and modeling from ancient Greek and Roman pieces that were at the time being excavated.  These were often broken – fragments and partial figures – and inspired his own work. One of his earliest partial figures, the Torso of the Walking Man, looks mutilated and worn – similar to the fragmented Classical sculptures. 

 

 

The Prayer 

Originally modeled in 1910

Size: 49 ½ x 21 ⅝ x 19 ⅝ inches 

As is true with many of his other partial figures, The Prayer, with its smooth surfaces and Classically-idealized female body, reminds us of Ancient Greek sculpture.

Many people did not agree that Rodin's partial figures were acceptable as works of art. Many felt that if the human figure was not depicted as “complete,” it was a “violation” of the human form. Many critics also used Rodin’s partial figures as avenues for criticism of his other work, citing the partial figures as evidence of  the artist’s difficulty in completing projects (such as the rejected  Monument to Balzac). 

 

 

The Cathedral 

Original stone version made in 1908 

Size: 25 ¼ x 12 ¾ x 13 ½ inches 

The Cathedral is composed of two larger-than-life-sized casts of the same right hand, put together in a prayer-like gesture. As suggested by its title, the shape and gesture are to be reminiscent of the vertical reach of a medieval cathedral, perhaps also referring to Rodin’s passion for Gothic architecture. Rodin developed a keen interest in French cathedrals while on a journey in 1875. Taking a train from Brussels (where he was working at the time) to Paris, one of his stops was the northeastern French city of Reims. Here he was struck by the Cathedral of Notre Dame, considered one of the best examples of Gothic architecture in France. He retained his passion for Gothic architecture throughout his life and even documented it in his 1914 publication The Cathedrals of France. 

 

 

Clenched Left Hand 

Originally modeled in 1906

Size: 18 ¼ 10 3/8 x 7 5/8 inches 

 

 

Large Clenched Left Hand with Figure 

Originally modeled about 1885

Size: 17 ½ x 11 ½ x 10 3/8 inches 

These two hands are examples of Rodin’s interest in hands afflicted with paralyzing diseases (such as arthritis or “claw hand”), which often have a theatrical look and can be seen as expressing pain or anger. Working with a series of enlargements, Rodin intensified the emotion of the hand by placing it upright in a threatening pose, like an angry cobra ready to strike. Clenched Left Hand with Figure portrays the afflicted hand in the same threatening pose; however here Rodin added an element that extended the interpretation:  the contorted hand towers over a small figure, suggesting a powerful force or dominance. 

 

 

Portraiture 

Rodin modeled more than one hundred portraits during his lifetime; often they honored benefactors and friends. As he matured as an artist these portraits came to convey the essence of the sitters’ personalities rather than exactly how they looked. 

After the 1900 Paris World Exposition retrospective of his work, Rodin’s popularity soared and he received numerous commissions for portraits of poets, musicians, dignitaries, and other luminaries.  Commissioned portraits provided much of his income.

• Bust of Jean Baptiste Rodin 

• Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose 

• Mask of Hanako, Type D 

• Gustav Mahler 

 

 

 

Monuments and Maquettes 

Like many of his contemporaries, Rodin sought work and recognition by competing for commissions for public monuments. He sculpted numerous maquettes -- small models made of clay or wax -- to submit as competition entries for these commissions. For Rodin, these clay sketches were not only submission pieces, but also opportunities to work out his ideas. Before he died he gave these maquettes to the French nation for the intended Musée Rodin.  The gift came with the instructions that the works could be cast in bronze after his death.

Maquettes/Studies for monuments:

• Maquette of Monument to General Lynch 

• The Call to Arms 

• Study for the Monument to Claude Lorrain 

• Study for the Monument to Whistler 

• The Burghers of Calais, First Maquette 

• The Gates of Hell, Third Maquette