id: 100824
accession number: 1920.120
share license status: CC0
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1920.120
updated: 2023-01-30 17:30:51.820000
Heroic Head of Pierre de Wissant, One of the Burghers of Calais, 1886. Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917). Bronze; overall: 83.5 x 47 x 55.3 cm (32 7/8 x 18 1/2 x 21 3/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Norweb Collection 1920.120
title: Heroic Head of Pierre de Wissant, One of the Burghers of Calais
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1886
creation date earliest: 1886
creation date latest: 1886
current location:
creditline: The Norweb Collection
copyright:
---
culture: France, 19th century
technique: bronze
department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
collection: Mod Euro - Sculpture 1800-1960
type: Sculpture
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
---
CREATORS
* Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917) - artist
---
measurements: Overall: 83.5 x 47 x 55.3 cm (32 7/8 x 18 1/2 x 21 3/4 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: inscribed at neck, left: A.Rodin; inscribed lower back: Alexis Rudier/Fondeur-Paris.
translation:
remark:
---
CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Rodin
opening date: 1963-04-29T04:00:00
Rodin. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (organizer) (April 29-September 8, 1963).
title: Loïe Fuller
opening date: 1984-04-10T04:00:00
Loïe Fuller. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (April 10-June 3, 1984).
title: Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2006-05-27T00:00:00
Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Beijing World Art Museum, China (May 26-August 27, 2006); Mori Art Center (September 16-November 26, 2006); Seoul Art Center, South Korea (December 22, 2006-March 28, 2007); Seoul Olympic Museum of Art, South Korea (April 7-May 20, 2007); Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (June 9-September 16, 2007); The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008); Frist Art Museum, Nashville, TN (February 15-June 1, 2008); Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, UT (June 22-September 21, 2008); The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI (October 12, 2008-January 18, 2009).
title: Gallery One 2012
opening date: 2012-12-12T05:00:00
Gallery One 2012. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (December 12, 2012-March 5, 2017).
title: Rodin-100 Years
opening date: 2017-09-01T04:00:00
Rodin-100 Years. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 1, 2017-May 13, 2018).
title: Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern
opening date: 2022-06-18T04:00:00
Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (organizer) (June 18-September 18, 2022) https://www.clarkart.edu/microsites/rodin/; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA (October 21, 2022-January 15, 2023).
---
LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
* Museum of Modern Art, NY, Rodin Sculpture, April 29-September 8, 1963.
---
PROVENANCE
Purchased by Mrs. Emery May Holden Norweb in 1917, but held in Paris and sent to the CMA in 1920.
date:
footnotes:
citations:
---
fun fact:
This sculpture depicts the head of a figure from Rodin's large public monument The Burghers of Calais (1884-89). The CMA also owns a plaster version of the head.
digital description:
wall description:
This sculpture depicts one of the figures in Rodin’s large public monument The Burghers of Calais (1884–89), featuring six French men who volunteered to be taken prisoner by the English in exchange for lifting the siege of Calais during the Hundred Years War (1337–1453). Pierre de Wissant’s anguished expression suggests extreme mental suffering as he contemplates his expected execution. Rodin exhibited a life-size version of the figure as an independent work before completing the monument. He later made multiple versions in various sizes and media.
---
RELATED WORKS
---
CITATIONS
"Modern Sculpture at the Museum." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 6 (1917): 108-09.
page number: Mentioned: pp. 108-109
url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25136110
"Rodin Memorial Exhibition." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 9 (1917): 162-63.
page number: Mentioned: p. 162
url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25136150
"Report of the Museum's Second Year." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 6/7 (1918): 69-79.
page number: Mentioned: p. 70
url: www.jstor.org/stable/25136208
F. A. W. "An Heroic Head by Rodin." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 7, no. 4 (1920): 43.
page number: Reproduced: Front Matter; Mentioned: p. 43
url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25136365
Tacha, Athena. Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.
page number: Mentioned: p. 96, cat. no. IX, Reproduced: p. [44], Plate 62; p. 45, Plate 62a
url: https://archive.org/details/RodinSculpture/page/n110
Tacha, Athena. A Supplement to Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.
page number: Mentioned: p. 129S, cat. no. IX
url:
Rodin, Auguste, Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, Christina Buley-Uribe, Patrick R. Crowley, C. D. Dickerson, Laure de Margerie, Véronique Mattiussi, Elyse Nelson, Jennifer A. Thompson, and Nora M. Rosengarten. Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. Williamstown, Massachusetts : Clark Art Institute, 2022.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 134, cat. 46
url:
---
IMAGES
web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1920.120/1920.120_web.jpg
print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1920.120/1920.120_print.jpg
full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1920.120/1920.120_full.tif