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A Burgher of Calais (Jean d'Aire)
Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917)
Modeled 1889
- Medium
- Plaster
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Dimensions
- 208.3 × 66 cm (82 × 26 in.)
- Culture
- France
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Gift of Mrs. Addie M. Hall Ellis
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
This statue is a part of the famous sculptural group The Burghers of Calais, made by Auguste Rodin to commemorate a tragic episode from the 14th century, during the Hundred Years’ War between France and England. Rodin depicted the moment when six courageous men offered them-selves as hostages to Edward III, the king of England, in exchange for the liberation of the city of Calais from a siege that had been starving inhabitants for nearly a year. This plaster statue (painted to simulate bronze) was exhibited in the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago, and entered the Art Institute’s collection that year.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
