The Walking Man (L'homme qui marche)

Auguste Rodin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of Rodin’s best-known compositions, The Walking Man introduced radical notions of sculptural truncation and assembly into the modern artistic canon. Composed of a fragmented torso attached to legs made for a different figure, the work is neither organically functional nor physically whole. The artist considered it finished because it captured the essence of movement. The collector Elizabeth Robinson commissioned this small-scale cast from the sculptor in Paris. A French inscription on the base reads: "To Madame Nelson Robinson of New York, M. Rodin, happy to see his work The Walking Man represented in her salon, presents his affectionate respects to her."

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The fifty thousand objects in the Museum's comprehensive and historically important collection of European sculpture and decorative arts reflect the development of a number of art forms in Western European countries from the early fifteenth through the early twentieth century. The holdings include sculpture in many sizes and media, woodwork and furniture, ceramics and glass, metalwork and jewelry, horological and mathematical instruments, and tapestries and textiles. Ceramics made in Asia for export to European markets and sculpture and decorative arts produced in Latin America during this period are also included among these works.

Metropolitan Museum of Art