Auguste Rodin was an admirer of the work of Ivan Mestrovic, with whom Eleanor Milne did her graduate work at Syracuse University in 1950–52. He is quoted as calling Mestrovic "the greatest phenomenon" among sculptors of the time. Rodin himself was the most famous sculptor of his time, despite humble beginnings. Today he is widely acclaimed for works like the Thinker (1879–90) and the Burghers of Calais (1894).

After a less than prestigious education, Rodin had earned his living as a decorative sculptor in Brussels. However, pieces he exhibited in the Paris Salons of the late 1870s and early 1880s garnered him much attention and praise and led to numerous important commissions. What may have attracted people to Rodin's work was the naturalism and unfinished quality of the majority of his sculpture, emerging from the roughcut stone or cast from clay models in which the artist's fingerprints may still be seen. While most academic sculptures tended to be uniformly polished, his were reminiscent of Michelangelo's unfinished slaves which had captivated the imagination of many. This approach was accompanied by bold, imaginative compositions and constructions, exemplified in the Gates of Hell (1880–1917), a commission he worked on for decades but which death prevented him from completing.

Rodin's work became known to American sculptors in the 1890s. Many men and women, including Mestrovic, made their way to France to have contact or to study with him. There he could be found among many assistants, the centre of an atelier system of production that is described in Bruno Nuytten's controversial film, Camille Claudel. In 1916, Rodin donated his production to the French government. More than 6,000 sculptures and drawings from this legacy can be seen in the Hotel Biron in Paris, the last of his studios, which also houses some works by Claudel; and in the Villa des Brillants in Meudon. There is also a museum devoted to Rodin in Philadelphia (USA) where bronze casts of the Thinker and the Gates of Hell can be seen along with many other works.

EXTERNAL LINKS:
Boston College Fine Arts Department. Art on the Web. Boston College is a participant in the AMICO (Art Museum Image Consortium) digital images library testbed.
Musée Rodin in France. Both the Hôtel Biron in Paris and the Villa des Brillants in Meudon.
Rodin Museum. Quicktime movie tours of the museum in Philadelphia.
Profile of Camille Claudel on National Museum of Women in the Arts website.
The 1988 film, Camille Claudel, on a website about its star, Isabelle Adjani (in French).

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