Friends recounted that toward the end of his career Rodin spent his Sundays building new sculptures from existing pieces in his studio. These assemblages took on an increasingly abstract and poetic character after 1900. Here, small-scale heads and hands that Rodin originally modeled as he worked on his monument "The Burghers of Calais" (on view in the museum garden) are joined by a hovering winged figure.
.
The alternatingly menacing and protective quality of the work has been linked to the horrors and loss of life Rodin witnessed during the 1870 Franco-Prussian War and, depending on the date when he brought these heads and hands together during world War I.
|
%3B%20Rodin%20Museum,%20Philadelphia_std.jpg)