The plucky preacher
Auguste Rodin
b.1840 Paris,France
d.1917 Meuden,France
St John the Baptist, modeled
ca.1877 cast 1888
Medium-Bronze
This early bronze betrays the raw physical and emotional intensity that sets Rodin's work apart from conventional sculpture of his era.The saint's gouged eyes,sunken cheeks and tousled locks conveys the spiritual ferocity with which he announces Christ's coming.A painted plaster version of the bust (which Rodin derived from his over life-sized,full-length figure Saint John the Baptist Preaching of 1878) was first exhibited as an independent work at the Paris Salon of 1879.
Donated to the MET by Samuel P.Avery,a founding trustee,this was the first Rodin sculpture to enter the collection.
The plucky preacher
Auguste Rodin
b.1840 Paris,France
d.1917 Meuden,France
St John the Baptist, modeled
ca.1877 cast 1888
Medium-Bronze
This early bronze betrays the raw physical and emotional intensity that sets Rodin's work apart from conventional sculpture of his era.The saint's gouged eyes,sunken cheeks and tousled locks conveys the spiritual ferocity with which he announces Christ's coming.A painted plaster version of the bust (which Rodin derived from his over life-sized,full-length figure Saint John the Baptist Preaching of 1878) was first exhibited as an independent work at the Paris Salon of 1879.
Donated to the MET by Samuel P.Avery,a founding trustee,this was the first Rodin sculpture to enter the collection.