Where to See The Age of Bronze Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

The Age of Bronze (L’Âge d’airain) by Auguste Rodin is the first modern sculpture and may be seen in many of the world’s top museums, or for free at the center of a roundabout in Paris.

L’Âge d’airain (The Age of Bronze) is a life-size statue of a standing naked male sculpted by Auguste Rodin in 1876. The realistic portrayal of the man caused a scandal as Rodin was originally accused of taking a cast directly from the body of his model. It was Rodin’s first large sculpture and The Age of Bronze is often considered to be the first modern sculpture. Over a hundred copies were cast in bronze during Rodin’s lifetime and many are on display in some of the world’s top art museums (and in less famous ones too).

The Age of Bronze / L’Âge d’airain by Auguste Rodin

The Age of Bronze / L’Âge d’airain (1876) by Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) is a life-size sculpture of a naked male standing 183 cm (72″) tall. This remarkable standing male nude, in a pose at least partly inspired by Michelangelo’s Dying Slave (in the Louvre), is often credited as the first modern sculpture.

Not too much should be read into the name of the work. Before its presentation, Rodin used at least three different names and in his own writings mentioned that he had no clear idea where to go with it. Most languages use a direct translation, although in German it is sometimes called Das Eherne Zeitalter (ca. The Earlier Epoch) hinting that it refers to the Bronze Age (and man’s awakening to his surroundings).

In some other languages L’Âge d’airain is translated as The Age of Bronze (English), Das Eherne Zeitalter (German), Das Zeitalter der Bronze (German), De Bronstijd (Dutch), La edad de bronce (Spanish), L’età del bronze (Italian), and 青銅時代 (Japanese).

Debut and Controversy

Rodin started working on the sculpture in 1875 while living in Brussels. The model was Auguste Neyt, a Belgian soldier, as Rodin wanted a muscular figure.

A full-size, 183 cm-high (72″) plaster was made in 1876 and exhibited as Le Vaincu (The Vanquished) the following year in Brussels. Rodin was falsely accused of having made the statue by taking a casting directly off the live model, a charge that was vigorously denied.

Original photos, now part of the Rodin archives in the Musée Rodin in Paris, show the remarkable likeness between Neyt and the final sculpture. In these photos, a long spear was held upright in his left hand. The spear was soon dropped.

The same controversy followed the renamed The Age of Bronze to the Paris Salon in 1877. The strong criticism of the sculpture by the Parisian art elite provided a lot of free publicity.

An important breakthrough for L’Âge d’airain (and Rodin) came in 1880 when the French state ordered a bronze copy. This first bronze version was ordered from the Thiebault Brothers and had a leaf covering the male genitals. It was originally displayed in the Jardin du Luxembourg and is currently in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris (with modesty cover permanently in place).

Museums Displaying Rodin’s The Age of Bronze Sculpture

Well over a hundred bronze copies of the 183 cm life-sized sculpture were cast in Rodin’s lifetime with many in museums but several in private hands. One sold for over €4 million in 2011. Smaller, reduced versions were also cast.

Some of the museums with full-size copies of The Age of Bronze include:

→→ More Photos at Flickr