The Story Behind the Sculpture

Glorifying a French defeat in the Hundred Years’ War against the English, the history behind The Burghers of Calais and its city’s numerous attempts through the years to obtain such a monument is rather interesting, to say the least. Though Rodin’s monument was erected in 1895, the city of Calais had actually called for a commemorative monument more than seventy years prior, in 1819 (Tancock, 381). The project to complete a monumental sculpture dedicated to the cities’ ancient heroes would be on a repeated start/stop cycle for the next sixty-five years, with nothing of substance ever being created. However, with the imminent merging of the city of Calais with the adjacent city of Saint-Pierre (Elsen, 66), the pressure was on to finally install a monument glorifying Calais.

The pressure for this went squarely onto the shoulders of Omer Dewavrin, the last mayor of Calais before the merger. His choice for an artist would be Rodin, whose meteoric rise in art world and numerous shared connections with Dewavrin practically guaranteed his selection even before the commission was announced. Rodin would also sweeten the deal by offering to complete the monument in a span of a couple years and to sculpt all six figures for the price of one (the price and time for completion, of course, would greatly rise as time went on). Dewavrin, swayed by the offer and Rodin’s first study (left), would give the commission to Rodin.

Perhaps after the experience with Rodin, the Dewavrin would have done it differently a second time. After Rodin’s second study (right), a whirlwind criticism befell the maquette, with the appalled Calaisian monument committee going so far as to state:

“This is not the way in which we had visualized our glorious forbears as they made their way to the English camp. Their dejected attitude offends our religion.” (Tancock 382)

The committee recommended various improvements, which all leaned toward the standard, academic practice regarding monuments. Rodin, however, would have none of that. The artist responded by saying, “You are asking me to follow the people whose conventional art I despise” (qtd. Elsen, 84). Rodin, with the eventual support of the mayor, who was embattled on one side by the artist and on the other by the committee, forged ahead with his final work on the monument.

Circumstances again conspired against the Calaisian monument, as the bank which held the funds for the commission went bankrupt a year later in 1886, and the city could no longer afford to pay for the work. Rodin nevertheless continued his work on the monument, completing it in and exhibiting it in the summer of 1889 (Elsen, 79). The city would quibble with Rodin for the next six years regarding the specifics of the work, but a funding drive would commence and the monument would be installed in 1895 with much fanfare and critical acclaim. After seventy-six long years, the proud citizens of Calais finally had their monument, The Burghers of Calais.