Auguste Rodin - Bronze Balzac Statue

Artist: Auguste Rodin (1840.11.12—1917.11.17, French sculpture artist. The main works are "The Thinker", "Bronze Age", "The Righteous of Calais" and "Balzac")

Type: Sculpture

Material: Bronze

Size: Height 270 cm

Date: 1897

Colleaction: Musée Rodin Paris (Paris, French)

 

Auguste Rodin - Bronze Balzac Statue

I believe some readers have read the story of Rodin and this Balzac statue. When Rodin was 10 years old, Balzac died. After he grew up, he read many of Balzac's works and admired the master of realism very much. Therefore, when the Association of French Writers commissioned Rodin to sculpt Balzac's statue, he said he would do his best. However, how to highlight Balzac's profound thoughts is a problem facing the artist, after all, this is not a literary work.

In the end, the artist chose a method of deleting the complex and simplifying it: only the head of the thinker was carved very finely, and the body was covered by a blanket-this is the scene where the writer is thinking about it, wearing the stars and wearing the moon. It is said that there are hands in the draft of the sculpture, but Rodin's excellent skill makes these hands too perfect. In order to highlight the giant's thoughts, Rodin finally gave up these hands.