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Additional Views

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Heroic Head of Pierre de Wissant, One of the Burghers of Calais

1886

Auguste Rodin

(French, 1840–1917)

France, 19th century

Bronze

Overall: 83.5 x 47 x 55.3 cm (32 7/8 x 18 1/2 x 21 3/4 in.)

Weight: 123 lbs

The Norweb Collection 1920.120

Location

not on view

Did you know?

This sculpture depicts the head of a figure from Rodin's large public monument The Burghers of Calais (1884-89). The CMA also owns a plaster version of the head.

Description

This sculpture depicts one of the figures in Rodin’s large public monument The Burghers of Calais (1884–89), featuring six French men who volunteered to be taken prisoner by the English in exchange for lifting the siege of Calais during the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). Pierre de Wissant’s anguished expression suggests extreme mental suffering as he contemplates his expected execution. Rodin exhibited a life-size version of the figure as an independent work before completing the monument. He later made multiple versions in various sizes and media.

Video

Inscriptions

Inscription

inscribed at neck, left: A.Rodin; inscribed lower back: Alexis Rudier/Fondeur-Paris.

Provenance

Purchased by Mrs. Emery May Holden Norweb in 1917, but held in Paris and sent to the CMA in 1920.

Citations

"Modern Sculpture at the Museum." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 6 (1917): 108-09. Mentioned: pp. 108-109 www.jstor.org

"Rodin Memorial Exhibition." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 9 (1917): 162-63. Mentioned: p. 162 www.jstor.org

"Report of the Museum's Second Year." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 6/7 (1918): 69-79. Mentioned: p. 70 www.jstor.org

F. A. W. "An Heroic Head by Rodin." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 7, no. 4 (1920): 43. Reproduced: Front Matter; Mentioned: p. 43 www.jstor.org

Tacha, Athena. Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967. Mentioned: p. 96, cat. no. IX, Reproduced: p. [44], Plate 62; p. 45, Plate 62a archive.org

Tacha, Athena. A Supplement to Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974. Mentioned: p. 129S, cat. no. IX

Rodin, Auguste, Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, Christina Buley-Uribe, Patrick R. Crowley, C. D. Dickerson, Laure de Margerie, Véronique Mattiussi, Elyse Nelson, Jennifer A. Thompson, and Nora M. Rosengarten. Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. Williamstown, Massachusetts : Clark Art Institute, 2022. Mentioned and reproduced: p. 134, cat. 46

Exhibition history

Museum of Modern Art, NY, Rodin Sculpture, April 29-September 8, 1963.

Rodin. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (organizer) (April 29-September 8, 1963).

Loïe Fuller. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 10-June 3, 1984).

Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum, China (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).

Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).

Rodin-100 Years. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 1, 2017-May 13, 2018).

Rodin—100 Years. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 1, 2017-May 13, 2018).

Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (organizer) (June 18-September 18, 2022) https://www.clarkart.edu/microsites/rodin/; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA (October 21, 2022-January 15, 2023).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Heroic Head of Pierre de Wissant, One of the Burghers of Calais|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1920.120|author=Auguste Rodin|year=1886|access-date=25 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Heroic Head of Pierre de Wissant, One of the Burghers of Calais

Heroic Head of Pierre de Wissant, One of the Burghers of Calais

Auguste Rodin

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