Rodin Museum

The Age of Bronze

Signed top of base to right: Rodin Foundry mark back of base to left: Alexis RUDIER./Fondeur. PARIS.

Modeled 1875-1877; cast 1925

Auguste Rodin, French, 1840 - 1917. Cast by the founder Alexis Rudier, Paris, 1874 - 1952.

Bronze
67 × 23 5/8 × 23 5/8 inches (170.2 × 60 × 60 cm) Weight: 314 lb. (142429.47g)

* Rodin Museum, Parkway

F1929-7-126

More information on this object can be found in the following Themes:

• About Auguste Rodin

  The Age of Bronze is the earliest surviving example of a life-sized sculpture by Rodin, which he began before leaving for Italy in late 1875 and completed after his return the following year. The figure's musculature and underlying structures are so authentic that the work proved an artistic liability for Rodin, and he spent three years defending himself against the charge that he had cast it from a live model. This accusation was a great insult because it denied Rodin's creative process, instead implying that he had done nothing more than simply make an impression of the model. Eventually a group of important artists sent a letter to the French government in the artist's defense, and the French state ultimately bought The Age of Bronze and had it cast in bronze for the Paris Salon of 1880.

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• Bronze Casting

  Rodin worked in traditional sculptural materials such as clay, wax, plaster, bronze, and marble. Although he did not attend the renowned École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in Paris, he learned the craft of sculpture through experience and years of employment in the studios of other artists. As he explained, "In addition to sculpture and design, I myself have worked at all sorts of things. I've cut down marbles, and pointed them; I've done etching, and lithography, bronze founding and patina; I've worked in stone, made ornaments, pottery, jewelry—perhaps even too long; but it all has served. It's the material itself that interested me. In short, I began as an artisan, to become an artist. That's the good, the only, method." Once he became an established artist, Rodin relied on a large studio of assistants to help him create large-scale works. Their presence allowed him to delegate the production aspects of his sculptures so that he could focus on conceiving and executing new pieces.

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