This is
Rodin's work – The Thinker. Rodin was a French sculptor (1840-1917). He was born and mostly stayed in Paris. His first name is François-Auguste-René– what
were his parents thinking!
Unsurprisingly he was known simply as Auguste.
Rodin
trained as a sculptor but then took religious orders for a while until his
superior recognised his talent and encouraged him to leave the order to pursue
sculpting. You have to love his moustache
in this picture! It took almost to the
end of his life for his work to become world famous – he was not an overnight
success.
His works
are considered to be impressionistic. He
didn't cast the sculptures himself. He
did a detailed model and then got master craftsmen to cast them. The picture is of another famous work, The Kiss.
Under
French law there can only be 12 casts of any one Rodin sculpture. This is why you find this sculpture The Burghers of Calais in Calais and
also in London. The figures in this
sculpture are very big – about 6 and a half feet tall and the whole thing
weighs about 2 tons (just under 2 metric tonnes)
There is a
museum devoted to him in Paris – the Museé
Rodin. It would be great to have a
chance to visit it.
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