Damned 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 de diciembre de 1887 · Distinción

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.

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.

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.