The individual figure of Jean d’Aire was originally conceived in 1887 and then re-modelled in this reduced size in 1895. This example was cast within Rodin’s lifetime, between 1915 and 1917 by the Alexis Rudier foundry. The Comité Rodin estimates that at least fifty casts of this sculpture were made between 1899 and 1960 by the Perzika, François Rudier, Alexis Rudier and Georges Rudier foundries.

In 1347 the Hundred Years War was raging between England and France. Jean de Froissart’s Chronicles report that, as Edward III took the city of Calais, he displayed the ‘limit of his clemency’ by condemning six of the city’s most prominent citizens to leave their hometown, stating that ‘with these six I shall do as I please, and the rest I will spare’. These men agreed to meet their fate to save their fellow citizens. They were then spared upon request of the Queen of England, who was moved by their bravery. Five- hundred years later, the recognition of their gesture became the subject of one of Auguste Rodin’s most famous sculptural groups: The Burghers of Calais.

The monument is formed of over-life-size figures of the six men in Jean de Froissart’s account. Rodin started working on the first maquette for the piece in 1885, but delivered the finished work only ten years later, in 1895. In this time-lapse, he worked extensively on the definition of each character’s stance and facial expression, immortalising the six men as they walk towards the English camp, leaving Calais behind. Due to the sculpture’s success, Rodin decided to cast bronze reductions of five of the Burghers, namely Pierre and Jacques de Wiessant, Jean de Fiennes, Eustache de Saint Pierre and Jean d’Aire. The present bronze is a lifetime cast of the latter figure, which was produced during by Rodin’s favourite foundry, Alexis Rudier, between 1915 and 1917.

Jean d’Aire was the second citizen of Calais to offer himself as a sacrifice to the English forces during the siege of Calais, as Jean de Froissart explains, ‘Then another greatly respected and wealthy citizen, who had two beautiful daughters, stood up and said that he would go with his friend, master Eustache de St Pierre'. (Jean de Froissart, The Chronicles of Froissart (1337-1410), (London, 1978)

As with all the Burghers, Rodin modelled Jean d’Aire a number of times. The present work is a reduction of the model used by Rodin in his final group. This differs from the study for the second maquette, which shows the Burgher carrying a number of keys on a small pillow. Rodin also created a nude study of the figure.

In the present model, we see Jean d’Aire carrying the key to the city. Clad in a monk’s robe his head is held high even in this most defeating of moments. The work is not only the most iconic of all of Rodin’s Burghers but also his most popular. Rodin himself was incredibly pleased with the model, keeping a monumental version in his own possession until his death in 1917. This example is now in the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon.

...

Download pdf to read full cataloguing of this artwork