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Auguste Rodin

Born: Paris, 12 November 1840
Died: Meudon, 18 November 1917
Nationality: French
Background: 

middle class - son of civil servant

Studies: 

with Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran (Ecole Spéciale de Dessin et de Mathématiques, Paris); with Antoine-Louis Barye (Museum of Natural History, Paris)

Career: 

1857 – wins first prize for sculpture and second prize for drawing at Ecole Spéciale de Dessin et de Mathématiques; rejected by Ecole des Beaux-Arts

1864 – works for sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse

1877 – exhibits Age of Bronze at Cercle Artistique (Brussels) and Paris Salon

1880 – French government purchases Age of Bronze; receives a commission for bronze doors to a planned museum of decorative arts, Gates of Hell

1884 – receives commission for Burghers of Calais

1885 – construction of decorative arts museum is cancelled; continues working on Gates of Hell

1886 – exhibits at Galerie Georges Petit

1889 – receives commission for statue of Victor Hugo for the Panthéon, Paris; statue rejected due to its nudity; joint exhibition with Claude Monet at Galerie Georges Petit

1891 – receives a commission for a statue of Honoré de Balzac; statue is rejected

1895 – Burghers of Calais unveiled in front of Calais City Hall; Rodin purchases the Villa des Brillants in Meudon

1900 – exhibits Gates of Hell, along with other sculptures and drawings, at Place de l’Alma, Paris, adjacent to Exposition universelle

1914 – publishes The Cathedrals of France

1916 – French government chooses Hôtel Biron (rue de Varenne, Paris, 7th arrondissement) as future Musée Rodin

1925 – first bronze casting of Gates of Hell  (for Jules Mastbaum of Philadelphia)

Travels

Brussels (1876-77); Italy (1875-76)

Important Artworks: 

Man with a Broken Nose, 1865 (plaster, Musée Rodin, Paris)

Age of Bronze, bronze, 1876 (plaster, Musée Rodin, Paris)

The Kiss, 1886 (Musée Rodin, Paris). There are numerous other versions of this work.

Monument to Balzac, bronze, 1898 (Museum of Modern Art, New York). There are numerous other versions of this work.

 

Web Resources

Musée Rodin

Metmuseum: Rodin