Auguste Rodin, 1893, the year his art caused controversy and failed to sell at Chicago’s World Fair.

On Auguste Rodin’s 172nd birthday, I present to you this classic photograph of the sculptor, which was taken in 1893 by Felix Nadar. By this point, The Thinker was complete and the artist’s reputation secure. Rodin died 24 years after this picture was taken at age 77. In 1923, Rodin’s secretary published a book alleging that the great artist died from a lack of heat in his home, his friends and nation having turned their backs on him. In its first month of existence in March of 1923, Time magazine ran an article (subscription only) about the controversy. An excerpt:

“Paris has been deeply shocked by a report of the circumstances of the death of the great Impressionist sculptor, Auguste Rodin.

A book by Mile. Tirel, Rodin’s secretary, states definitely that Rodin died of cold, neglected by friends and officials of the state, while his sculptures, which he had given to the nation, were kept warmly housed in a centrally heated museum at public expense. His case was so desperate that he asked to be permitted to have a room in the museum—the Hotel Biron, formerly his own studio. The official in charge of the museum refused. Other officials and friends promised coal but never sent it, though his situation at Meudon, ill, and freezing to death, was apparently well known to all of them.

No one in a position to know the facts has denied Mile. Tirel’s charges. The book has the sanction of Rodin’s son.”

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Rodin, through Sacha’s Guitry’s eyes: