Buste de Bellone

c. 1880 – 1881

Juliette Adam's salon and first recognition

Rodin was received at the salon of the writer Juliette Adam, where he was presented to Gambetta; Gambetta recommended him to Antonin Proust, the minister of fine arts, who bought “St. John the Baptist” for the state. It was the first recognition to reach a sculptor who was already forty.

1881

London: meeting William Ernest Henley

Rodin's friend Alphonse Legros introduced him in London to the poet William Ernest Henley, who did more than anyone to win him a British audience. Through Henley Rodin met Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Browning.

1882

“St. John the Baptist” at the Royal Academy

A bust of St. John the Baptist, a version of the statue bought by the French government, was shown with success at the Royal Academy. A year earlier Henley, who had become editor of the Magazine of Art, had published several articles on Rodin there.

1883

Meets Camille Claudel

Standing in for Alfred Boucher, who was away, Rodin supervised his students' course and met the eighteen-year-old Camille Claudel. She became his assistant, model, lover and creative rival.

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”.