Torso

Auguste Rodin|Coubertin Foundry

modeled ca. 1877–78, cast 1979 · Bronze, marble base · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

This bronze cast preserves the aggressiveness with which Rodin could attack his clay figures. He tore and gouged the torso with his hands and sliced at its arms and thigh with wire. Contemporary critics often decried these acts as "mutilations" of the human body and considered them direct assaults on artistic ideals. But in such fragments Rodin sought to achieve an aesthetic beauty that was heroic and complete, saying of another work, "Don’t you see I left it in that state intentionally?" Rodin displayed a large-scale plaster cast of this composition at his 1889 joint exhibition with Monet at Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. He later reused a version of Torso to create The Walking Man.

Artist

Auguste Rodin|Coubertin Foundry

Date

modeled ca. 1877–78, cast 1979

Medium

Bronze, marble base

Culture

French

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, 1984