- NameAuguste Rodin
- Sexmale
- Nationality/DatesFrench, born 1840, dead 1917
- PlacesPlace of birth: Paris, France
BiographyRodin worked in his youth as decorative sculptor, while in Paris, educated as a sculptor, including Antoine Louis Bary. His own early sculptures were based on detailed model study and were exceptionally realistic, often associated with intense expression, as the man with that broken nose (1863). Michelangelo's sculpture meant gradually becoming concerned about his development. There is an early symbolist dimension in his works, as in the awakening people and Bronze Age (1876). Especially the latter provoked debate both for its realism and similarity to Michelangelo's "The dying slave". A full figure of a walking man, John the Baptist preaching (1878-80), contributed to his breakthrough, and in 1880 he received the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris contracted to perform an extensive monumental work, a phantom port - Hell's Gate - on which he worked until 1916 , and in which several of his greatest creations included, including The Thinker (1880), which crowns the door bar. He won in 1884 a competition for a monument to Calais burghers of Calais, who with mighty concretion shows a group of men heavy border to his death as a hostage. In her later works became increasingly painterly Rodin in the portrayal, as in the striking statue of Balzac (1891-98), and reached often a strong effect of the rich play of light and sensuality, not least in his virtuoso marble sculptures. Many late sculptures appear only in part from the otherwise raw marble block. Almost all his works are in the original in the Musée Rodin in Paris