Man with a Broken Nose

Rodin modeled this sculpture, one of his first, on a handyman whose features he felt revealed a life of struggle. As he worked on the clay model in his studio during the winter, the freezing temperatures caused the back of the head to crack off. Rodin decided to cast the broken version in bronze, giving the finished piece the appearance of a mask. Looking back at this work twenty-five years later, the sculptor declared: “That mask determined all my future work.”

Image Caption

Auguste Rodin, Man with a Broken Nose, modeled 1863–64, Bronze. The Clark Art Institute, 1955.971.