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The Walking Man

A work made of bronze.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of bronze.

Date:

Modeled 1877/1900; cast before 1917

Artist:

Auguste Rodin
French, 1840-1917

About this artwork

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.

Status

On View, Gallery 243

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist

Auguste Rodin

Title

The Walking Man

Place

France (Object made in)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1895–1905

Medium

Bronze

Inscriptions

Signed in model on base; signature plate welded under base Alexis Rudier Foundry, Paris

Dimensions

H.: 84.1 cm (33 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Bequest of A. James Speyer

Reference Number

1987.217

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/69852/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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