I spent some of my favorite moments during my recent trip to Paris exploring again the Rodin Museum and its wonderful outdoor sculpture garden. There is something really special about seeing sculptures outdoors, where the time of day, the season, and the weather can make them come alive in new ways that are not possible in the controlled confines of an indoor museum.
When I travelled to Washington D.C. on Saturday, one of my goals was to see some of the Rodin sculptures that I recalled were in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden. The garden is sunken slightly below ground level and as I descended I immediately spotted the large sculpture known as The Burghers of Calais (Les Bourgeois de Calais). This multi-person sculpture is very well-known and I had seen another casting of it recently in Paris. (According to French law, there can be only 12 original castings of a Rodin sculpture, and both the one that I saw in Paris and this one are original castings.)
I couldn’t remember the story behind the sculpture, so I turned to Wikipedia. From a factual perspective, the sculpture commemorates an event during the Hundred Years’ War, when Calais, a French port on the English Channel, was under siege by the English for about eleven months. As you study the faces and the postures of the men in the sculpture, you realize that it is much more than a monument to a historical event.
According to Wikipedia, “Edward, the king of England, offered to spare the people of the city if six of its leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded that they walk out wearing nooses around their necks, and carrying the keys to the city and the castle. One of the wealthiest of the town leaders, Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first and five other burghers joined with him. Saint Pierre led this envoy of volunteers to the city gates. It was this moment, and the poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice, and willingness to face imminent death that Rodin captured in his sculpture.”
The sculpture in the second image is known simply as The Walking Man (L’homme qui marche). I am amazed at Rodin’s skill in capturing a sense of movement in such an incomplete figure. For me, it’s like a three-dimensional sketch that has come to life.
The final Rodin sculpture that I wanted to highlight is known as the Crouching Woman (also known as Lust). I find the pose of the woman to be intriguing and the Rodin Museum, which has a terracotta version of the sculpture, asserts that it “looks like a compact block with limbs gathered together and pressed tightly against the torso. This block-like sculpture reflects Rodin’s aesthetic analysis of Michelangelo’s sculpture: it is a work that, to quote the great Italian artist, could roll down a hill without breaking.”
These Rodin sculptures remind me of Paris, but in a greater sense, they highlight my heightened appreciation for the work of artists. Sometimes artists capture beauty and other times they create beauty (and often they do both at the same time). What is beauty? That will have to be the subject of a separate blog someday.
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
Your photos captured the outdoor light so beautifully on the sculptures, Mike. I enjoyed the descriptions, and of course, the magnificence of Rodin.
Thanks, Jet. The lighting was less of an issue than the background–the sculptures are kind of jammed together and the outer concrete wall is not very photogenic. I also took a few photos inside the Rodin Museum when I was in Paris that I may feature in a posting soon. Capturing sculpture indoors was an even bigger challenge in many ways.
Very nice photos, Mike. It’s fun to watch you extend your vacation into your artistic journey.
Great photos of the sculptures. We visited the Rodin museum in Philly several months ago and I think the sculptures were showcased best when they were in an exterior setting – certainly the larger pieces like the Burghers.
I only recently realized that there was a Rodin Museum there and will add that to the reasons why I need to visit Philadelphia. (I have a niece and her husband who live in Philadelphia>)
It’s a small museum. We were glad to get in for free because it would have been expensive for six for not enough return. Most of the headline pieces are actually in the grounds. The Philadelphia Museum of Art is, however, well worth visiting – and not just for the Rocky steps!
Thank you for sharing your research on these three statues!
It’s interesting how a photographer has to choose the angle from which s/he takes the image of a sculpture. It could be from any angle, but obviously some give a better view than others.