RODIN
[1840-1917]

Francois-Auguste-René Rodin was born in Paris on November 12th, 1840, the same year, as art historians love to point out, in which Monet was born and a year after Sisley and Cézanne.

Auguste Rodin's sculptures have become icons of modern art. Even those who have never stepped into an art gallery are familiar with images such as The Thinker and The Kiss. His sculptures had an ability to convey raw emotion and individual character. These are qualities which do not age and make Rodin's sculptures as fresh and accessible today as they were a century ago.

These qualities which ensure Rodin s popularity today were also those which kept him outside the French establishment for many years. Rodin came from a modest background and it took him many years of struggle to establish himself in his profession.

He was rejected three times from entry to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and when he did exhibit a work such as  The Age of Bronze it was greeted with suspicion, as its realism suggested it had been cast directly from the human figure. Gradually success and major commissions came his way with such works as Gates of Hell and the Burghers of Calais. In his old age Rodin produced some of his most evocative portraits of Victor Hugo and Balzac, ironically he was finally elected to the Academie Francaise a few days after his death in 1917 at the age of 77.