Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin received his early training from artist Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran (1802–1897) at La Petite Ecole in Paris, where he developed an interest in the arts of ancient Greece and Rome. Although not formally enrolled in art school, he continued his studies with the sculptors Antoine-Louis Barye (1796–1875) and Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824–1887). In 1875, Rodin traveled to Italy to study the example of Michelangelo, finding inspiration in works such as the carved figures for the Medici tombs in San Lorenzo, Florence, and the painted nudes in the Sistine Chapel, Rome. The exhibition of Rodin’s life-size male nude The Age of Bronze at the Paris Salon of 1877 brought him widespread attention. At the time, the French Academy advocated an ideal based on a neoclassical standard—heroic subjects and godlike representations of human figures expressed in smooth, uniform surfaces and generally static, yet graceful poses. Deviating from these guidelines, Rodin used modeled and irregular surfaces and dynamic poses to impart individuality to his figures, and he developed an interest in the tactile qualities of the sculpting medium. These pursuits put Rodin at odds with the Academy’s dictates.