Often works of greatness are the result of the merest coincidence. When we look today at the works of Auguste Rodin, his sculptures are so powerful and so vibrant that it is difficult for us to believe that he did not intend to be a sculptor from childhood - and that his talent was not immediately recognized. But it was in fact the case that Rodin would in all likelihood not have made the contributions to the artworld that he is celebrated for today except for the combination of personal tragedy and a chance encounter with the works of Michelangelo.
It was true that Rodin was inclined towards the artistic from an early age. Born in 1840 (in Paris) he entered a Parisian school for the decorative arts called the Petite Ecole when he was fourteen. But his career as a artist seemed to be doomed to be unsuccessful when he was rejected three times by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, the most important artistic academy in the country at the time. By the time he was 18, he had turned to making decorative stonework to earn a living. He pursued this craft until he was 22, when the death of his sister Marie struck him so deeply that he decided to renounce the world and its sorrows and enter a sacred order.
The head of the order that he joined recognized his talent, and encouraged him to pursue it, thereby discouraging Rodin from turning away from the world altogether. And when he was 24, Rodin met Rose Beuret, a seamstress who would become both his life's companion and his frequent model. That same year, Rodin submitted a work titled "Man with a Broken Nose" to the Paris Salon. When it was rejected, he resubmitted it with the loftier sounding title, "Portrait of a Roman."
Rodin traveled in 1875 to Italy where he saw a number of works by Michelangelo. These made a lasting impression on him, and the influence of made a strong impression on him. Immediately on his return to Paris his created "The Age of Bronze", which was accepted into the 1877 P...