Auguste Rodin, under the influences of last…

Auguste Rodin, under the influences of last year's tour of Italy, molds his first original work, the bronze Le Vaincu (”The Vanquished”), the painful expression of a vanquished energy aspiring to rebirth.

Later retitled The Age of Bronze, the banal studio pose of a man leaning on a staff produced an unconventional and expressive gesture; Rodin's removal of the staff rendered the piece effective.

Rodin had learned from Honoré Daumier the bold modeling of surfaces that are emotive rather than literal; the statue is only a rough approximation that avoids the definitive finish of earlier sculpture and remains in a state of becoming.

It provokes scandals in the artistic circles of Brussels, as the realism of the work contrasts so greatly with the statues of Rodin's contemporaries that he is accused of having formed its mold upon a living person.