Hand

modeled possibly ca. 1886–89 · Sculpture

Can I see it?

Not on view at present

Where is “Hand” now? Collection: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Not on view at present. Checked November 11, 2026.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York, United States

It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.

Checked: yesterday
In this state since: Nov 11, 2026
Source: The museum

On the map Museum page

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Details

Accession number: 66.247.4

What it shows

Hand

In the catalog

Sculpture Plaster Impressionism 19th century

Sources

The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Image: The Metropolitan Museum of Art — Open Access (CC0)

In the life of Auguste Rodin

The whole life

1884
Commission for “The Burghers of Calais”
Rodin pursued the commission for a monument to the town of Calais, but instead of a lone hero, Eustache de Saint-Pierre, he conceived six citizens, each with his own emotions. A year later the committee was unimpressed with his progress; Rodin was ready to abandon the project rather than change his design, and the town told him to carry on.
1885
Camille Claudel: assistant and lover
From 1885 Claudel worked as an assistant in Rodin's studio and posed for him, and soon they became lovers. The affair lasted nine years, and Rodin did not break with Rose Beuret, who knew her role as “the other woman”.
1886
Commission for the Victor Hugo monument for the Panthéon
Rodin showed Hugo as a mighty nude titan among three muses; the figure was judged unsuitable for the Panthéon and the project was rejected. In 1890 he removed the muses, and in 1909 the monument was set up in the garden of the Palais-Royal.
31 December 1887 · Award
Knight of the Legion of Honour
1889
Rodin and Monet at the Georges Petit gallery
“The Burghers of Calais” was the main event of a joint exhibition of Rodin and Claude Monet: thirty-six sculptures by Rodin and seventy paintings by Monet.
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.