A Monumental Leap

Such attention to the poses in his sculptures culminates in Rodin’s Monument to Honoré de Balzac, where the artist’s dedication to providing an inherently dynamic pose to his figure proves that Rodin had become more focused on creating an overall impression of his subject rather than detailing it in an academic manner. Exhibited in the Salon of 1898, the pose in this figure, though less active than in previous works, is wholly unpretentious; this greatly differs from the academic practice of ‘glorifying’ the subject, and thus makes the work much more potent and compelling. As the primary focus and most crucial element of the whole sculpture, the pose of Balzac here is meant to lend the impression of, in Rodin’s words, “Balzac laboring in his study, his hair in disorder, his eyes lost in a dream” (qtd. Tancock, 42). We can thus see here a large change in Rodin’s mindset; instead of attempting to depict Balzac in the academic sense - nude and authoritative, as he had in the previous sculpture of the writer - Rodin instead has fully embraced the impressionist method in this final revision, sculpting Balzac as he would have been seen in a spontaneous moment. The figure’s pose is unique: the shoulders are offset and asymmetrical, the torso twists back, and the right foot steps forward with its knee bent underneath a robe. These factors all combine to make the pose of Balzac truly dynamic, imparting the appearance of the writer pacing in contemplation - exactly the impression Rodin had hoped to achieve. The pose of Balzac takes on a greater significance when viewed from the side, as the figure leans backward in a pronounced manner from the hips up. This stands in direct contrast with Rodin’s The Age of Bronze - done almost two decades earlier - where the forward-leaning pose of the figure gave the impression of latent activity which would blossom at any second. Here, the backward-leaning pose of Balzac stressed the more cerebral idea of the famed writer in deep rumination. In dropping all pretenses of academic art and adopting a new mindset, especially in regards to the subject matter - Balzac, as a 19th century writer, was by no means an academic subject - Rodin would find a greater freedom in incorporating a more fluid, more dynamic aspect into the poses of the figures in his sculptures. With Monument to Honoré de Balzac, Rodin had, in essence, finally freed himself from the yoke of the academic, instead aligning himself with the methodology of the impressionists and choosing to capture the immediate visual image of a figure in action through its pose.