Rodin was rejected from art school three times. He applied to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts at seventeen with a clay model. They turned him down. He applied again. They turned him down again. He tried once more. Same result. All three rejections came within eighteen months. He was also very nearsighted, which had made his early schoolwork difficult and would later get him discharged from the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War.
Key facts
- Lived
- 1840–1917, French
- Works held in
- 26 museums[1]
Biography
He attended the Petite Ecole instead, which specialised in decorative arts. This shaped his approach. He worked as a craftsman and decorator for years before exhibiting The Age of Bronze at the 1877 Paris Salon. The figure was so lifelike that critics accused him of surmoulage: casting directly from a living body. He demanded an inquiry. A committee of sculptors eventually cleared him. The scandal, perversely, made him famous. People came to see the work for themselves.
In 1880, he was commissioned to design bronze doors for a planned decorative arts museum. He chose Dante's Inferno as his subject. The Gates of Hell consumed thirty-seven years. He added, removed, and rearranged over two hundred human figures. He never finished. The doors were never cast in his lifetime. But they spawned several of his most famous independent works: The Thinker, The Kiss, and The Three Shades were all originally conceived as elements of the Gates, then removed, enlarged, and cast separately. The Thinker was initially meant to be Dante, contemplating the scene from the tympanum.
His relationship with Camille Claudel began in 1883 when he took over a sculpture course from Alfred Boucher. She was eighteen. For a decade she was his assistant, lover, and co-creator, a sculptor of serious ability in her own right. Modern scholarship questions whether he borrowed ideas from her. After an abortion in 1892, the intimate relationship ended. Claudel's mental health deteriorated. Her family committed her to a psychiatric asylum in 1913, where she remained for thirty years.
Rose Beuret, a seamstress, was his companion for fifty-three years. They had a son he largely neglected. He conducted affairs throughout. He married Rose on 29 January 1917. She was already gravely ill. She died of pneumonia sixteen days later. Rodin died that November.
Timeline
- 1840Born on 12 November in Paris into a working-class family. His father was a police clerk and his mother a seamstress; neither had connections to the art world.
- 1857At 17, failed the entrance examination to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts three times despite studying at the Petite Ecole. The repeated rejections forced him to earn a living as a decorative craftsman for the next two decades.
- 1877At 37, exhibited The Age of Bronze at the Paris Salon after returning from a formative trip to Italy. The figure was so lifelike that critics accused him of casting it directly from a living model.
- 1880At 40, received his first government commission: a monumental portal for a planned museum of decorative arts in Paris. The Gates of Hell, as it became known, occupied him for the rest of his life and spawned independent works including The Thinker and The Kiss.
- 1884At 44, signed a contract to create The Burghers of Calais for the city of Calais, depicting six medieval citizens who offered their lives to save the town. He also met Camille Claudel, a young sculptor who became his student, collaborator and lover.
- 1900At 60, held a major solo exhibition in a specially built pavilion at the Place de l'Alma in Paris during the World's Fair. The retrospective of 168 works confirmed his status as the foremost sculptor of his generation.
- 1908At 68, moved to the Hotel Biron in Paris, a grand 18th-century townhouse that he shared at various times with Rilke, Matisse and Cocteau. He later donated his entire collection to the French state on condition the building become a museum.
- 1917Died on 17 November at his villa in Meudon, aged 77, just months after marrying his lifelong companion Rose Beuret, who had died two weeks after the ceremony. The Musee Rodin opened in 1919 in the Hotel Biron as he had wished.
Notable Works
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Where to See Auguste Rodin
18 museums worldwide.
- 16 works
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
District of Antwerp, Belgium
Related Artists
Frequently Asked Questions
Did auguste rodin have children?
Rose Beuret, his companion for fifty-three years, had a son with Auguste Rodin, but he largely neglected him.How did auguste rodin die?
Auguste Rodin died in 1917 at the age of 77.Was auguste rodin french?
Auguste Rodin was French; he based his theme for The Gates of Hell on The Divine Comedy by Dante.Who is auguste rodin?
Auguste Rodin based his theme for The Gates of Hell on The Divine Comedy by Dante.Who was auguste rodin?
Auguste Rodin based his theme for The Gates of Hell on The Divine Comedy by Dante.Why did auguste rodin make the thinker?
The Thinker was originally intended to be a small statue made to fit at the top of the door.Why is auguste rodin famous?
According to the twentieth-century sculptor Brancusi, Auguste Rodin transformed sculpture, reviving it as a medium worthy of an original artist.Auguste rodin facts?
Auguste Rodin was rejected three times by the École des Beaux-Arts as a young sculptor.Auguste rodin famous works?
Auguste Rodin's famous works include The Man with the Broken Nose, The Age of Bronze, The Burghers of Calais, The Monument to Balzac, and The Kiss.Where did auguste rodin live?
Auguste Rodin spent the last two decades of his life in Meudon, France, twenty minutes south-west of Paris by train.Auguste rodin most famous work?
Some of Auguste Rodin's most famous works include The Man with the Broken Nose, The Age of Bronze, The Burghers of Calais, The Monument to Balzac, and The Kiss.What nationality was auguste rodin?
Auguste Rodin was France, born in 1840 and died in 1917.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following primary and tertiary references for Auguste Rodin.
- [1] museum Brooklyn Museum Used for: museum holdings.
- [2] museum Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts Used for: museum holdings.
- [3] museum Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp Used for: museum holdings.
- [4] museum Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon Used for: museum holdings.
- [5] museum National Gallery Prague Used for: museum holdings.
- [6] museum Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales Used for: museum holdings.
- [7] book Susie Hodge, Art Used for: biography.
- [8] book Susie Hodge, Art: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest Artists and Their Work Used for: biography.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-05-31. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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