Heroic Head of Pierre de Wissant, One of the Burghers of Calais
Medium
bronze
Dimensions
83.5 × 47 × 55.3 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
The Norweb Collection
Accession Number
1920.120
Tags
male
About this artwork
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 la...