Modern · Art Institute of Chicago · 69852
The Walking Man
Auguste Rodin, Modeled 1877–1900, cast before 1917
Art Institute of Chicago · Bequest of A. James Speyer · Public domain
- Artist
- Auguste Rodin
- Date
- Modeled 1877–1900, cast before 1917
- Medium
- Bronze
- Dimensions
- H.: 84.1 cm (33 1/8 in.)
- Era
- Modern
Why it matters
The Walking Man originated from one of Auguste Rodin’s early successes, his life-size Saint John the Baptist Preaching of 1878. Rodin made separate plaster studies of the sculpture’s components, and much later he returned to the legs of the Baptist, grafting onto them a torso from another composition. In 1900 he exhibited a half-life-size version of this work in plaster, and it made a deep impression on younger artists, notably Henri Matisse. The bronze cast of The Walking Man deliberately preserves the raw stages of artistic creation while elevating the fragmentary and unfinished to a new aesthetic plane.