Who Was Auguste Rodin and Why Was His Sculpture So Radical?

Aside from Michelangelo, there’s no artist as synonymous with sculpture as Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). He created an art-historical icon—The Thinker—that rivals Leonardo’s Mona Lisa for pop-cultural fame. But more than this, he set sculpture on its path toward modernism, breaking with the mythological themes and neoclassical refinement endorsed by the French Academy and revolutionizing the medium, imbuing it with raw emotional expression.Rodin’s approach was a