The artist now widely recognized as the first modern sculptor, who gave the world the epic, turbulen

The artist now widely recognized as the first modern sculptor, who gave the world the epic, turbulent Gates of Hell, the emotionally incisive Burghers of Calais, and the groundbreaking, naturalistic Monument to Balzac, failed the entrance examination for Paris’s most prestigious art school, the École des Beaux-Arts. Instead, Auguste Rodin attended the so-called “Petite École,” a school that trained future artisans in the applied and decorative arts. He studied drawing and sculpture there, while also spending time on his own drawing at the Louvre, the Jardin des Plantes, and the Museum of Natural History. Early in his career he supported himself by working for a variety of decorative and ornamental sculptors and porcelain manufacturers. He exhibited one of his own works at the Paris Salon for the first time in 1875, and the next year he traveled to Italy to study the works of Michelangelo. By the time he sat for this portrait by the great Pictorialist photographer Edward Steichen in 1911, Rodin had become a celebrated and controversial artist with a studio employing as many as fifty artisans. He made savvy use of photography to enhance his artistic persona; this pose evokes his famous composition The Thinker, connecting head and hand to emphasize the source and the tool of his creativity.Edward Steichen (American, born Luxembourg, 1879–1973). M. Auguste Rodin, 1911. Photogravure, image. Brooklyn Museum -- source link

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