Lot Essay
While living in Brussels in 1876, Rodin began work on a sculpture he felt would form a modern counterpart to the classical expression in the works of Donatello and Michelangelo during a recent trip to Italy.
He chose a soldier, Auguste Neyt, as his model. Rodin analyzed the forms of Neyt's lean, athletic physique with the objectivity he admired in Renaissance sculptures, and at the same time infused his subject with a natural emotional expression. He exhibited the sculpture in Brussels in 1877 as Le Vaincu, and later that year as L'Age d'Airain in the Paris Salon. Critics accused him of modelling directly from the human body. A committee of inquiry was set up, and after taking the evidence of sculptors who had seen Rodin at work, they ruled in Rodin's favour.
He chose a soldier, Auguste Neyt, as his model. Rodin analyzed the forms of Neyt's lean, athletic physique with the objectivity he admired in Renaissance sculptures, and at the same time infused his subject with a natural emotional expression. He exhibited the sculpture in Brussels in 1877 as Le Vaincu, and later that year as L'Age d'Airain in the Paris Salon. Critics accused him of modelling directly from the human body. A committee of inquiry was set up, and after taking the evidence of sculptors who had seen Rodin at work, they ruled in Rodin's favour.