Balzac, the Silhouette, 4 a.m
About this artwork
This photograph is one of a series commissioned by the pioneering French sculptor Auguste Rodin of his statue of Balzac which had been commissioned by the ‘Société des Gens de Lettres’ in 1891. Yet when the three metre high plaster was exhibited in 1898, the committee said “it was nothing but a head stuck on a sack”, and refused it. In 1908, however, Rodin proposed to achieve the effect of the completed commission – the sculpture as it would appear in the dark density of bronze – by asking Steichen to photograph the work by moonlight. Rodin was deeply moved by the results and said: “you will make the world understand my Balzac through these pictures. They are like Christ walking on the desert”. It was finally cast in bronze and placed in the streets of Paris in 1939.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Edward Steichen (1879 - 1973) American
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title:Balzac, the Silhouette, 4 a.m
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date created:1908; published 1911
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materials:Photogravure
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measurements:16.10 x 20.60 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased 2008
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accession number:PGP 422.1
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gallery:
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subject:
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glossary:
Edward Steichen
Edward Steichen
One of the greatest photographers of his generation, Steichen was born in Luxembourg, before his family emigrated to the U.S.A. in 1881. He lived in Paris for several years between 1906 and 1919, where the work of Symbolist and Impressionist painting influenced his aesthetic. Although his career...