The Burghers of Calais

Les Bourgeois de Calais is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin, that exists in twelve original castings, and numerous copies. It commemorates an event during the Hundred Years' War, when Calais, a French port on the English Channel, was under siege by the English for about eleven months. Calais commissioned Rodin to create the sculpture in 1884 and the work was completed in 1889.[1][2]

The Burghers of Calais
ArtistAuguste Rodin
Year188489
TypeBronze
Dimensions201.6 cm × 205.4 cm × 195.9 cm (79 38 in × 80 78 in × 77 18 in)
LocationCalais, France
Coordinates50°57′8.5″N 1°51′12″E
Burghers at the Met

History

In 1346, England's Edward III, after a victory in the Battle of Crécy, laid siege to Calais, while Philip VI of France ordered the city to hold out at all costs. Philip failed to lift the siege, and starvation eventually forced the city to parley for surrender.

The contemporary chronicler Jean Froissart (c. 1337 – c. 1405) tells a story of what happened next: Edward offered to spare the people of the city if six of its leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded that they walk out wearing nooses around their necks, and carrying the keys to the city and castle. One of the wealthiest of the town leaders, Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first, and five other burghers joined with him.[3] Saint Pierre led this envoy of volunteers to the city gates. It was this moment, and this poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice, and willingness to face imminent death that Rodin captured in his sculpture, scaled somewhat larger than life.

According to Froissart's story, the burghers expected to be executed, but their lives were spared by the intervention of England's queen, Philippa of Hainault, who persuaded her husband to exercise mercy by claiming that their deaths would be a bad omen for her unborn child.[3] (Her son, Thomas of Windsor, only lived for one year). Other historians consider the episode may have been a piece of pre-arranged political theatre.

Composition

The City of Calais had attempted to erect a statue of Eustache de Saint Pierre, eldest of the burghers, since 1845. Two prior artists were prevented from creating the sculpture: David d'Angers by his death, and Auguste Clésinger by the Franco-Prussian War. In 1884 the municipal corporation of the city invited several artists, Rodin amongst them, to submit proposals for the project.[4]

Rodin's design, which included all six figures rather than just de Saint Pierre, was controversial. The public felt that it lacked "overtly heroic antique references" which were considered integral to public sculpture.[1] It was not a pyramidal arrangement and contained no allegorical figures. It was intended to be placed at ground level, rather than on a pedestal. The burghers were not presented in a positive image of glory; instead, they display "pain, anguish and fatalism". To Rodin, this was nevertheless heroic, the heroism of self-sacrifice.[5]

In 1895 the monument was installed in Calais on a large pedestal in front of Parc Richelieu, a public park, contrary to the sculptor's wishes, who wanted contemporary townsfolk to "almost bump into" the figures and feel solidarity with them. Only later was his vision realised, when the sculpture was moved in front of the newly completed town hall of Calais, where it now rests on a much lower base.[6]

Casts

Cast in the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.

Under French law no more than twelve original casts of works of Rodin may be made.[7]

The 1895 cast of the group of six figures still stands in Calais. Other original casts stand at:

Memorial Court, Stanford University[13]

Copies of individual statues are:

References

Notes

  1. Linduff, David G. Wilkins, Bernard Schultz, Katheryn M. (1994). Art past, art present (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. pp. 454. ISBN 0-13-062084-X.
  2. "Burghers of Calais". The National Museum of Western Art. Retrieved 27 January 2012.
  3. Froissart, Jean, Chronicles of England France, Spain, and the adjoining countries, (1805 translation by Thomas Jhones), Book I, Chapter 145
  4. Jianou (1970), p. 69.
  5. Elsen (1963), p. 72; Laurent (1989), p. 82.
  6. Laurent (1989), p. 89.
  7. Respecting Rodin's moral right. Le musée Rodin
  8. Hall, James (2003). "Auguste Rodin, The Burghers of Calais". In Verdi, Richard (ed.). Saved! 100 years of the National Art Collections Fund. Scala. pp. 128–33.
  9. "The Burghers of Calais". The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  10. "Welcome – Plateau". plateau.or.kr.
  11. "With restructuring, a debate rages over Samsung's precious art collection". Hankyoreh. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  12. The Burghers of Calais, Plateau 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2012.
  13. "Burghers of Calais, (sculpture)". SIRIS
  14. 35 works by Rodin, 7 by his contemporaries, given to Stanford, Stanford University News Service (13 July 1992)
  15. Rodin! The Complete Stanford Collection, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University
  16. "Auguste Rodin bio profile". Collections Record Listing. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  17. "Davidson College Art Galleries". Davidson College Art Galleries. Davidson College. Retrieved 6 April 2016.
  18. "Art on the Davidson College Campus". Auguste Rodin – Art on the Davidson College Campus. Davidson College Library. Retrieved 6 April 2007.
  19. "park, skulptur, Mannen med nøklene". oslobilder.no.
  20. Barry, Dan; Rashbaum, William K. (20 May 2002). "Born of Hell, Lost After Inferno; Rodin Work From Trade Center Survived, and Vanished". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved 1 December 2017.

Sources

  • Elsen, Albert E. (1963). Rodin. New York: Museum of Modern Art.
  • Jianou, Ionel (1970, transl. Kathleen Muston and Geoffrey Skelding). Rodin. Paris: ARTED.
  • Laurent, Monique (1988, transl. 1989 by Emily Read). Rodin. New York: Konecky & Konecky. ISBN 1-56852-173-1.

Further reading

  • Benedek, Nelly Silagy (2000). Rodin • The Burghers of Calais. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0-87099-948-6.
  • Chevillot, Catherine; Marraud, Hélène; Pinet, Hélène; Adamson, John (transl.) (2014). Rodin: The Laboratory of Creation. Dijon: Éditions Faton. ISBN 978-2878442007.
  • Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette (2014). Rodin. New York: Abbeville. ISBN 978-0789212078.
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