A Burgher of Calais (Jean d'Aire)

model 1884-1889, reduction cast probably 1895

Auguste Rodin

Sculptor, French, 1840 - 1917

Cast in bronze, this free-standing sculpture shows a man with a gaunt face wearing a robe that falls in long, vertical folds as he holds an oversized skeleton key down in front of his thighs. In this photograph, the man’s body faces us but he turns his head to our left to look in that direction, his chin sightly raised. He has close-cropped hair, sunken eyes, hollow cheeks, a wide, square chin, and his thin lips are downturned. The long-sleeved robe drops heavily to his feet, and the toes of one bare foot peek out. A hint of a raised, round halter like a yoke around his neck shows from under his robe near his left shoulder, on our right. Most of the surface has a dark green patina except for a few lighter places, as on his sleeve to our left and in the thick drapes of his robe. A few areas are rubbed gold, including the tip of his nose and the knuckles of his hands.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Rodin designed this figure as one of six colossal statues forming a monument to a group of fourteenth-century citizens of the northern French town of Calais. The six men had offered themselves as hostages to induce the English to lift a siege and spare their starving city. When modern Calais, about to tear down its medieval walls, decided to erect a monument reaffirming its ancient identity, Rodin pursued the commission eagerly and won it in 1884.

Rodin's burghers, following the conqueror's orders, are stripped down to their shirts, with halters around their necks and the keys to the city in their hands as a sign of submission. The sculptor portrayed the men as they were leaving their town for the English camp, where they expected execution. Rodin conceived the burghers less as ideally noble heroes than as ordinary men, ragged and emaciated after the ordeal of the siege, each experiencing a personal confrontation with death.

Jean d'Aire, his gaunt body visible through the sides of his shirt, stands upright as a pillar, with squared shoulders, massive clenched hands, and a stoically set jaw. In his bony face and sunken eyes one can read what his sacrifice is costing.

More information on this object can be found in the Gallery publication European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/european-sculpture-19th-century.pdf

On View

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G2

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson

  • Dimensions

    overall: 47 x 16 x 14 cm (18 1/2 x 6 5/16 x 5 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.5.13

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Acquired before 1905 from the artist by Mr. and Mrs. John W. Simpson, New York; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1905

  • Loan Collection of Paintings by Claude Monet and Eleven Sculptures by Auguste Rodin, The Copley Society of Boston, Copley Hall, 1905, no. 7.

1908

  • Renaissance and Modern Bronzes, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1908, no. 171, as Bourgeois de Calais.

1965

  • Wax Sculptures by Degas, Sculptures and Drawings by Rodin, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965-1966, no cat.

1974

  • Nineteenth-Century Sculpture, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1974, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1889

  • Bartlett, Truman H. "Auguste Rodin, Sculptor." American Architect and Building News (19 January-15 June 1889): 250.

  • Geffroy, Gustave. "Le statuaire Rodin." Les Lettres et les Arts (1 September 1889). In Vilain, Jacques. Claude Monet-Auguste Rodin: Centennaire de l'exposition de 1889. Exh. cat. Musée Rodin, Paris, 1989: 64-65.

1895

  • Mirbeau, Octave. "Auguste Rodin." Le Journal (2 June 1895).

1911

  • Gsell, Paul, ed. "Auguste Rodin." L'Art. Paris, 1911: 102-116, 188.

1917

  • Cladel, Judith. Rodin: The Man and His Art. Translated by S.K. Star. New York, 1917: 152-166.

1927

  • Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musée Rodin. Paris, 1927: 51-53.

1944

  • Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musée Rodin. 5th ed. Paris, 1944: 59-62.

1963

  • Elsen, Albert E. Rodin. New York, 1963: 70-87.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 168.

1967

  • Descharnes, Robert, and Jean-François Chabrun. Auguste Rodin. Lausanne, 1967: 106-115.

  • Spear, Athena Tacha. Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1967: 40-47.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 148, repro.

1971

  • Goldscheider, Cécile. "La Nouvelle Salle des Bourgeois de Calais au Musée Rodin." La Revue du Louvre 21 (1971): 169, pl. 3.

1976

  • Tancock, John. The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin. Philadelphia, 1976: 376-402.

1977

  • Judrin, Claudie, Monique Laurent, and Dominique Viéville. Auguste Rodin: Le Monument des Bourgeois de Calais (1884-1895) dans les collections du... Exh. cat. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Calais; Musée Rodin, Paris. Paris, 1977.

  • McNamara, Mary Jo, and Albert E. Elsen. Rodin's Burghers of Calais. New York and Los Angeles, 1977.

  • de Caso, Jacques, and Patricia B. Sanders. Rodin's Sculpture: A Critical Study of the Spreckels Collection. San Francisco, 1977: 204-225.

1986

  • Rilke, Rainer Maria. Auguste Rodin. Translated in G. Craig Houston. Rodin and Other Prose Pieces. London, 1986: 35-39.

  • Miller, Joan Vita, and Gary Marotta. Rodin: The B. Gerald Cantor Collection. New York, 1986: 41-71.

  • Lampert, Catherine. Rodin: Sculpture & Drawings. Exh. cat. Hayward Gallery, London, 1986: 101-115.

1987

  • Le Nouëne, Patrick, and Hélène Pinet. Auguste Rodin: Le Monument des Bourgeois de Calais et ses photographes. Exh. cat. Musée des Beaux-Arts, Calais; Musée Faure, Aix-les-Bains. Calais, 1987.

1988

  • Beausire, Alain. Quand Rodin Exposait. Paris, 1988: 95, 96, 98, 100, 105, 116, 123, 151, 157, 158, 164, 192, 201, 205, 210, 212, 213, 217, 220, 231, 237, 250, 251, 253, 260, 266, 357, 359, 366.

  • Fonsmark, Anne-Birgitte. Rodin: La collection du Brasseur Carl Jacobsen à la Glypthothèque. Copenhagen, 1988: 111-115.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 304, repro.

1993

  • Butler, Ruth. Rodin. The Shape of Genius. New Haven and London, 1993: 199-213.

1994

  • Levkoff, Mary L. Rodin and His Time: The Cantor Gifts to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles, 1994: 92-101.

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 200, repro.

1998

  • Porter, John R., and Yves Lacasse. Rodin à Québec. Quebec, 1998: 95-105.

2000

  • Butler, Ruth, and Suzanne Glover Lindsay, with Alison Luchs, Douglas Lewis, Cynthia J. Mills, and Jeffrey Weidman. European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 345-348, color repro.

2015

  • Barbour, Daphne, and Lisha Deming Glinsman. "August Rodin's Lifetime Bronze Sculptures in the Simpson Collection." Facture: conservation, science, art history 2 (2015): 54-81, fig. 7.

2023

  • Glinsman, Lisha Deming, Daphne Barbour and Shelley Sturman. "When the Workshop is Fluid: Observations on Parisian Bronze Casting in the Early Twentieth Century." Daphne Barbour, ed., Facture. Conservation, Science, Art History 6 (2023): 171, fig. 12.

Inscriptions

on back of base: A. Rodin

Wikidata ID

Q63809257

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