sculpture

Pierre de Wissant

Auguste Rodin

Pierre de Wissant is one of the figures from the sculpture group The Burghers of Calais. Everything about the sculpture conveys inner struggle: the tormented pose, the expressive gesture of despair, the leaden arms and hands, and the powerfully moulded surface. The statue of Pierre de Wissant is a brilliant illustration of Rodin’s power. The city of Calais commissioned The Burghers of Calais to commemorate the Hundred Years’ War. Rodin created 12 groups of the statues in his studio. This statue of Pierre de Wissant is unusual in that Rodin created it especially for the KMSKA.

About this work

Object details

TitlePierre de Wissant
Date1884-1886
Mediumbronze
Measurements202 × 113,5 × 105 cm, 180kg
Inventory number1654

More about this work

Despair in Calais In 1884, the mayor of the northern French port of Calais commissioned the illustrious Auguste Rodin to design a monument that would become one of his best-known works. The city wanted to commemorate an episode from the Middle Ages, during the Hundred Years’ War against the English. King Edward III promised to spare Calais, provided that six citizens voluntarily handed over the keys to the town before being taken to the scaffold. According to a mediaeval chronicler, they did so naked and with a noose around their necks. This figure of Pierre de Wissant, dressed in a tattered shirt, is one of the six Burghers of Calais. After numerous preparatory studies in plaster and bronze, Rodin’s ensemble was finally completed in early 1886. The six townspeople, including this tormented and desperate de Wissant, are utterly lifelike individuals. The powerful moulding of the surface means that even the light effects are ‘nervous’. Rodin wanted his group to be installed at eye level rather than on a pedestal, as was customary in the nineteenth century, arguing that this would enable people to identify more closely with their historic local heroes. His proposal was fiercely criticised and caused the installation of the monument to be delayed. In the end, it took until 1895 for this to occur – on a tall plinth and surrounded by an ironwork fence. It was not until 1924 that the bronze citizens were given a place on a low plinth in the city centre, by which time Rodin had already died. The plaster ensemble was shown in Brussels in 1903 and the Antwerp museum expressed an interest in a bronze version of Pierre de Wissant. It was cast in 1908 by the Fonderie Nationale des Bronzes in Brussels.