Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, and deeply pocketed surface in clay. He is known for such sculptures as The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell.
Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917) was deeply inspired by tradition yet rebelled against its idealized forms. Over the course of a career that spanned the late 1800s and early 1900s, he introduced innovative practices that paved the way for modern sculpture.
Aside from Michelangelo, there’s no artist as synonymous with sculpture as Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). He created an art-historical icon— The Thinker —that rivals Leonardo’s Mona Lisa for...
Auguste Rodin achieved the reputation of the father of modern sculpture with his iconic and powerful bronze portraits.
Discover an emblematic selection of masterpieces and documents from Auguste Rodin's collections, which show the richness and diversity of the collections of the Rodin Museum, created in 1919 by the sculptor himself.
Auguste Rodin was born in 1840, the second child and only son of Jean-Baptiste Rodin and Marie Cheffer, first-generation Parisians of modest means. Nothing in his family background or situation suggested that he might become an artist.
Bewildered by their rough edges, tool marks, and lack of finish, the public often considered Rodin’s sculptures unacceptably incomplete and frequently obscene for their sexually charged nature. Nevertheless, Rodin achieved fame and status by the turn of the century.
Auguste Rodin (born , Paris, France—died , Meudon) was a French sculptor of sumptuous bronze and marble figures, considered by some critics to be the greatest portraitist in the history of sculpture.
Rodin began St. John the Baptist Preaching in 1878 and exhibited a plaster cast of the work at the Paris Salon of 1880. During this period, the artist’s studies of the head, chest, and legs of his model began to interest him in their own right.