Auguste Rodin 1840 – 1917

Biography

Auguste Rodin was a French sculptor widely regarded as the father of modern sculpture. Born in Paris in 1840, he was rejected three times by the École des Beaux-Arts and worked for years as a decorative craftsman before his work gained recognition. His breakthrough came with The Age of Bronze, exhibited in 1877, and he went on to create some of the most famous sculptures in the world: The Thinker, The Kiss, and The Burghers of Calais. His monumental Gates of Hell, commissioned in 1880 and never completed in his lifetime, yielded many of his best-known figures. Rodin worked in clay and plaster with extraordinary attention to the human body in motion and emotion. He died at his home and studio at Meudon in 1917. His studio at Meudon is now a museum, and his works stand in major collections around the world, securing his place as a bridge between tradition and modern art.