Head of Balzac

Auguste Rodin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rodin made more than fifty studies for the Balzac monument, and the majority are heads. This one represents the artist’s transition from more naturalistic portraits toward the abstracted mask that adorns the final study for the Monument to Balzac. Here, Balzac’s agitated brow, pug nose, and deeply gouged eyes evoke the author’s melancholic insights into the human psyche. Perhaps Rodin identified with Balzac. Both were driven souls, avid art collectors, voracious lovers, and prolific artists.

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