The Martyr

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.

1884

A Chilean commission: Vicuña and Lynch

The Chilean government commissioned statues of the late president Vicuña and of the commander Patricio Lynch; Rodin had long dreamed of an equestrian statue. Because of a coup in Chile the monuments were never cast and the models were lost.

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.