Âmes du purgatoire

1890s–1900s

Young sculptors in Rodin's studio

His income let him hire gifted young sculptors, among them Antoine Bourdelle, Charles Despiau, Jules Desbois, François Pompon and Aristide Maillol. Constantin Brancusi left after two months, convinced that nothing grows under a big tree.

1891

Commission for the Balzac monument

The Société des Gens de Lettres, largely through the personal efforts of its president, Émile Zola, commissioned a monument to Balzac to be delivered in two years. Rodin pictured a massive standing figure with a large head and a body hidden in drapery, but he missed the deadline.

19 January 1892 · Award

Officer of the Legion of Honour

1893

Chicago: nudes behind a drape

Through the curator Sarah Hallowell, Rodin sent “Cupid and Psyche”, “Sphinx” and “Andromeda” to the Chicago World's Fair; the nudes caused such controversy that they were hidden behind a drape, with special permission needed to see them. Even so, the financier Charles Yerkes bought two large marbles and was probably the first American to own a Rodin.

1895

Buys the Villa des Brillants at Meudon

Rodin bought the Villa des Brillants estate near Paris and moved his studio there, but there was not enough room and two years later it went back to Paris. His income let him collect: Egyptian, Greek and Roman sculpture, Persian miniatures and paintings by his contemporaries, including Van Gogh's “Portrait of Père Tanguy”.

1895

“The Burghers of Calais” installed in Calais

Against Rodin's wishes — he had hoped to place the group at ground level near the town hall — Calais chose a high platform in front of a public garden, with a cast-iron railing. Rodin had proposed doing without a pedestal so that viewers could “penetrate to the heart of the subject”.