Rodin’s Monument to Balzac at the Musée Rodin, Paris

The Monument to Balzac by Rodin: The Statue That Got Him Fired

A writers’ society commissioned Rodin to sculpt Balzac in 1891, then refused the finished work in 1898. It was cast in bronze only after his death, and he called it the sum of his life.

Visit

The bronze stands outdoors in the garden, included with museum entry. Musée Rodin Tickets

Location

Musée Rodin garden, 77 Rue de Varenne, Paris 7th.

Visit duration

About 1.5 to 2 hours for the galleries and the garden. Plan your visit

Material and size

Bronze, roughly 2.7 metres tall, modelled between 1891 and 1898.

Rodin’s Balzac, and Why Nobody Wanted It

In 1891 the Société des Gens de Lettres, the French writers’ society, asked Auguste Rodin for a statue of Honoré de Balzac. Balzac had been dead for forty years and was famously short, heavy and nothing like a monument. Rodin spent seven years on him and handed back a figure wrapped in a shapeless robe, with no hands, no pen and no desk. The society refused it. For the story of how everything he made ended up in one mansion, see how the Musée Rodin came to hold nearly everything Rodin made.

Seven Years Chasing a Dead Man’s Face

Front view of Rodin’s Monument to Balzac, Musée Rodin, Paris — Photo: couscouschocolat, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Rodin took the commission seriously to the point of obsession. He read the novels, went to Balzac’s home region in Touraine to find men who resembled him, worked from old portraits and daguerreotypes, and tracked down the measurements Balzac’s own tailor had kept. He modelled him nude first, then heavy, then thin, before covering the whole thing in a robe.

What he arrived at was not a likeness. The body underneath is barely described, the head is thrown back, and the figure reads at a distance as a single upright mass. Rodin was after the presence of the man rather than his appearance, which is exactly what his clients had not asked for.

Rejected in 1898, Cast in 1935

Rodin’s Balzac in the Musée Rodin garden with Les Invalides behind — Photo: Osbornb, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The plaster went on show at the Salon in 1898, in the same room as The Kiss, and split Paris in two. The writers’ society voted to reject it and gave the commission to another sculptor. Rodin refused to alter the work, returned the fee and took it home to Meudon, where it stood in his garden for the rest of his life.

He never saw it in bronze. The first bronze was cast in 1935, eighteen years after his death, and a version was finally raised on a Paris boulevard in 1939. Today the piece is widely treated as the point where modern sculpture starts, which is a long way from a rejected commission.

What to Look for in the Garden

Rodin’s Monument to Balzac at the Musée Rodin — Photo of the Musée Rodin cast (S.1296), CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Robe

The robe is doing all the work. Rodin soaked cloth in plaster and draped it over the figure, so the body is a shape rather than an anatomy, which is what critics found unfinished and sculptors found liberating.

The Head

The head tilts back and the features are cut deep enough to read from far away. Rodin worked out the angle so the face catches light from above rather than head on.

From the Side

Walk round to the side and the figure leans backwards more than you expect. It is the least flattering angle and the one Rodin cared most about.

Rodin’s Balzac in the garden of the Musée Rodin — Photo: Osbornb, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Where It Stands

In the garden it stands against open sky rather than a wall, which is roughly how Rodin wanted it seen: outdoors, above eye level, with nothing behind it.

Finding It on the Way Round

Balzac stands out in the garden, and most people walk past him on the way to something else. Give him one slow lap: front, side, then from below. Late light is kinder to the deep cuts in the face than midday sun, and from the right spot you get Les Invalides in the background.

Musée Rodin: special tickets

Highlights

Avoid long entry lines for the museum.

Discover Rodin’s most celebrated creations like The Thinker and The Kiss.

Explore both the permanent displays and special temporary exhibits.

Stroll through the serene Sculpture Garden inside a historic 18th-century mansion.

Benefit from optional add-ons such as audio guides and interactive tablets at checkout.

Frequently Asked Questions About Rodin’s Balzac

Who commissioned the Monument to Balzac?

The Société des Gens de Lettres, the French writers’ society, in 1891. Rodin delivered in 1898, seven years later.

Why was it rejected?

The society expected a recognisable portrait of the novelist and got a robed mass with no hands and no attributes. They voted it down in 1898 and gave the commission elsewhere.

What is Balzac wearing?

A long robe, based on the dressing gown Balzac was said to write in. Rodin draped plaster-soaked cloth over the figure rather than carving folds.

How tall is it?

Roughly 2.7 metres, meant to be seen outdoors and from below rather than in a gallery.

Did Rodin ever see it in bronze?

No. He kept the plaster at his house in Meudon and died in 1917. The first bronze was cast in 1935.

Where can you see it now?

A bronze stands in the garden of the Musée Rodin in Paris. Others are in the city itself, at the corner of Boulevard Raspail, and in museums abroad.

Why is it called the first modern sculpture?

Because Rodin gave up likeness and surface detail in favour of a single mass and a silhouette, an approach sculptors spent the next fifty years building on.