The Burghers of Calais

Give the index card for “Burghers of Calais”

“Burghers of Calais”, Auguste Rodin, 1884-89, bronze, 201 × 205 × 196 cm, Calais

Where are the sculpture’s casts located?

• Musee Rodin, Paris

• Victoria Gardens, London

Who were the Burghers? What was their story?

• Six of Calais’s highest ranking citizens

• During Edward III’s 1347 siege of Calais, he offered to end the siege if Calais surrendered the key to the town, along with their 6 most prominent citizens

• However, their lives were spared by Queen Philippa

Who commissioned the piece, and when?

The Mayor of Calais in 1884, via the National Appeal Fund

Why was Rodin arguably the wrong person to do the commission?

• He did not depict the Burghers heroically, as the Mayor would have wanted

Where was the sculpture originally displayed?

On a pedestal in Calais

What happened to the sculpture in 1926?

• It was moved to mark the opening of the new Town Hall

What unusual thing did Rodin do to the surface? What effect does it give the sculpture?

• Added chemically applied verdigris

• Gives it a sense of age and makes it seem monolithic

Give the elements necessary for a thumbnail sketch

• Six haggard looking figures

• Plinthless

• Draped in long robes, which makes them appear timeless

• Ghostly

• Elongated

• In the round

• No natural viewing position

• Internal rhythms and depth

• Unorthodox massing

• Oversized feet

• Emaciated

• Balletic

• All on one platform

• All have different responses to their fate:

• Some are contorted with grief

• Some question their fate

• Some look at the ground

• One stands tall, accepting his fate

What was the artist’s process of creating the piece?

• Industrially cast— sand casting

• Modelled from live models

• Went to Calais to base the features off of real inhabitants

• Wax/plaster maquette to map composition

• Additive and subtractive plaster

Which aspects of the piece were cast separately, and why?

• Hands

• Arms

• Face

• He wanted to tell stories through them

How does Rodin alter the figures’ appearances?

• He heightens their flaws and ordinariness

What are the effects of materiality?

• Bronze is the material of public sculpture

• Gives bronze a modern interiority

• Creates depths and patterns of shadow in an almost painterly manner

• Rough shadow

• Likes to leave it unfinished, with his fingerprints still visible

• Etching pain with rough, hard lines

• Embraces imperfection, which is heightened by his use of shadow

Is the sculpture modern?

• Yes

• Old subject but contemporary figures

• Baudelaire would say that he is depicting modernity

How is this sculpture a departure from the style of the salon?

• Salon sculpture does not change very easily

• Not classical

• Strips out the heroism from bronze, the canonical material of heroism

Give a brief quote from Rodin that epitomizes this sculpture

“I forced myself to express in each swelling of the torso” — ‘Art’, Auguste Rodin, 1912

How did Rodin modify the way in which the sculpture was displayed?

• The first maquette was on a triumphal base, which was later removed

How did Rodin create the draped effect of their robes?

• The figures were initially unclothed

• He used real gowns dipped in plaster

Was the piece modelled from life?

Yes