The Burghers of Calais
Auguste Rodin (1840 to 1917) · 1884 to 1888 (model), cast 1953
Six men walk toward their deaths. In 1347, after a long siege, the English king Edward the Third agreed to spare the town of Calais if six of its leading citizens came out barefoot, with ropes around their necks, carrying the keys to the town. The medieval chronicler Froissart tells how they volunteered, and Rodin shows them at the moment they set out. One carries the key, one hides his face in his hands, one turns to say a last word. They are not marching in step. Each is alone with his fear, and the group only makes sense when you walk around it and see them from every side.
The town of Calais commissioned the monument in 1884 and expected a single heroic figure on a tall pedestal. What Rodin delivered was this: life-sized men in rough sackcloth, feet oversized, hands enormous, faces gaunt, arranged on a low base so that the viewer stands among them. The councillors were dismayed and the statue was not unveiled until 1895. Look closely at the hands, which Rodin modelled separately and reused in other works, and at the ropes, which were not part of the story until he added them.
The Burghers has become one of the most admired public sculptures of the nineteenth century, with casts in Calais, London, Paris, Philadelphia and elsewhere. This one was cast in 1953 for the Matsukata Collection shortly before the works were returned to Japan, and it has stood in the forecourt since 1959. Take your time with the figure at the back who looks over his shoulder. Rodin gave him the face of despair, but also the small, stubborn dignity of someone who has already decided to go.
Did You Know? The English queen, Philippa of Hainault, pleaded for the six men and they were spared; the sculpture shows a death march that never took place.
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