The Annotated Mona Lisa: Pages 110 - 111

Question 1

Rodin: First Modern Sculptor

Answer 1

• Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
• revived sculpture as a medium worthy of an original artist
• he was rejected from Ecole des Beaux-Arts, so he developed his own innovative style
• he refused to use professional models, he hired can-can dancers to stroll about doing spontaneous poses
• his greatest triumph was a ten-foot-tall statue of French writer Balzac; the design made no attempt to reproduce the great writer’s actual features
• by 1900 he was acknowledged as the world’s greatest living sculptor