Rodin: A Life in Sculpture

For Rodin, creating sculpture was a refuge from a complicated but always fascinating life. This tour examines his work as a means to understand the key episodes of his career: his early struggles to secure his reputation with works like Age of Bronze, his affair with sculptor and model Camille Claudel, and the humiliating scandal surrounding his most ambitious monument, Balzac at the Salon of 1898. Although these works and others are universally admired today, they were often seen as awkwardly out of step with the sculpture of his day. This tour aims to give you a better understanding of Rodin’s innovations in their historical context. How did works like Gates of Hell and Burghers of Calais forever change the notion of the sculpted monument? We explore, among other things, Rodin’s experimental working method, his preference for the expressive part over the finished whole, and his attention to the complexity of our own viewing experience.

Your guide will bring your tickets, and together you’ll use a priority access line to enter the museum. There may be a wait for the required security screening, however.

Our cancellation and change policies are here.

Tour Teaser:  A snappy intro to the life and work of Rodin from the British Museum.