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August Rodin - his life, his work

1840		Birth of Auguste Rodin on 12 November in Paris.
1850	10 years old	He started to draw.
1854	14 years old	He attended a special school for drawing and mathematics, known as "la Petite Ecole", and followed courses given by Lecocq de Boisbaudran and the painter Belloc.
1855	15 years old	Rodin discovered sculpture.
1857	17 years old	He left "la Petit Ecole" and sought admission to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. He was rejected three times.
1858	18 years old	Rodin worked for several decorators and ornamentalists.
1862	22 years old	Stricken by the death of his sister Maria, he withdrew to the Monastery of the Order of the Holy Sacrement, where he stayed until 1863.
1864	24 years old	He started to work with Carrier-Belleuse. He met Rose Beuret, aged 20. Birth of Camille Claudel.
1866	26 years old	Birth of his son Auguste-Eugène Beuret.
1867	27 years old	He worked as a practicien (sculptor's assistant) for several ornamentalists.
1870	30 years old	Rodin accompanied Van Rasbourgh to Brussels. On his return to Paris, he was enlisted in the Garde Nationale as a corporal but was subsequently discharged because of his myopia.
1871	31 years old	After his discharge, he joined Carrier-Belleuse in Belgium. Death of his mother. Rose joined Rodin in Brussels at the end of the year.
1872	32 years old	He stopped working for Carrier-Belleuse who returned to Paris.
1873	33 years old	He associated himself with the Belgian sculptor Antoine-Joseph Van Rasbourgh.
1874	34 years old	While in Belgium, he participated in the decoration of the Palais des Académies in Brussels, painted a series of landscapes of the Soignes forest and made some lithographs to illustrate the satirical magazine Le Petit Comique.
1875	35 years old	Rodin travelled to Italy where he studied the work of Michelangelo.
1877	37 years old	He exhibited The Bronze Age at the Cercle Artistique et Littéraire in Brussels, then the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris. Rodin was accused of having cast his statue directly from life. In autumn, Rodin undertook his first tour of cathedrals in central France. Rodin and Rose left Belgium and returned to France.
1879	39 years old	Rodin worked at the Manufacture de Sèvres until December 1882.
1880	40 years old	He moved into his first studio at the Dépôt des Marbes, 182 Rue de l'Université, which he kept until he died. The French State bought The Bronze Age and commissioned him to sculpt a monumental door for the future Museum of Decorative Arts. Although he worked on it until the end of his life, it was never delivered and was only cast in bronze after he died.
1881	41 years old	The French State bought a bronze model of Saint John the Baptist. He visited England for the first time and learned the techniques of engraving from Alphonse Legros in London.
1882	42 years old	He sculpted the figures of Adam, Eve and The Thinker.
1883	43 years old	He met Camille Claudel, who was then 19 years of age. Death of his father.
1885	45 years old	The city council of Calais commissioned a monument to commemorate Eustache de Saint Pierre, which was to become known as The Monument to the Burghers of Calais and was inaugurated in 1895 in the presence of Rodin.
1886	46 years old	He received orders for monuments to Benjmin Vicuna Mackenna and General Patricio Lynch for Santiago in Chile. The Kiss.
1887	47 years old	He was appointed Knight of the Légion d'Honneur. He illustrated a copy of Les Fleurs du Mal by Baudelaire belonging to Gallimard.
1888	48 years old	The State commissioned The Kiss in marble for the Universal Exhibition of 1889.
1889	49 years old	He became a founding member of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He received a commission for a Monument to Claude Lorrain which was inaugurated in Nancy in 1892. He exhibited with Claude Monet at the Galérie Georges Petit. He received an order for a Monument to Victor Hugo to be placed in the Pantheon.
1890	50 years old	The project for the Monument to Victor Hugo (Victor Hugo seated) was turned down.
1891	51 years old	While he prepared a new maquette for the Pantheon (Victor Hugo standing), the first project for a Monument to Victor Hugo was ordered for a garden. The Société des Gens de Lettres commissioned a Monument to Balzac.
1892	52 years old	Rodin was promoted Officer of the Légion d'Honneur.
1893	53 years old	Rodin succeeded Dalou as President of the Sculpture Department and Vice-President of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts. He hired Bourdelle as a practicien.
1894	54 years old	On 28 November, Rodin was invited by Monet to Giverny where he met Cézanne. He received an order for a Monument to Sarmiento for Buenos Aires (Argentina) which was inaugurated in 1900.
1895	55 years old	He bought the Villa des Brillants in Meudon which he had rented since 1893 and started to build up his collection of antiques and paintings. Inauguration in Calais of The Monument to the Burghers of Calais.
1896	56 years old	"Rodin, Puvis de Chavannes, Carrière" exhibition at the Rath Museum in Geneva.
1897	57 years old	An art patron, Maurice Fenaille, published a series of 142 drawings by Rodin, with a preface by Octave Mirbeau, known as the "Goupil Album" (named after the publisher). The Monument to Victor Hugo was displayed at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
1898	58 years old	He broke up with Camille Claudel who was then 34 years old. The Société des Gens de Lettres refused the plaster statue of Balzac which was presented at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
1899	59 years old	He received a commission for a Monument to Puvis de Chavannes. First exhibition devoted to him in Brussels, then Rotterdam, Amsterdam and The Hague. The large-scale Eve was shown at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
1900	60 years old	Rodin was appointed Knight of the Order of Leopold of Belgium. Inauguration of the Rodin Pavilion at Place de l'Alma in Paris on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition.
1901	61 years old	The Rodin Pavilion for the Universal Exhibition was dismantled and re-installed in Meudon, on the grounds of the Villa des Brillants. It was converted into a studio. Major photographic exhibition of Rodin's works by Eugène Druet at the Galerie des Artistes Modernes.
1902	62 years old	Major exhibition of Rodin in Prague. Rodin met the poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926). He was Rodin's secretary from 15 September 1905 to 12 May 1906. Illustrations for the second edition of Mirbeau's Jardin des Supplices, with lithographs by Auguste Clot.
1903	63 years old	Rodin was appointed Commander of the Légion d'Honneur.
1904	64 years old	Rodin met the Duchesse de Choiseul (their friendship broke up in 1912). First exhibition of a large-scale plaster of The Thinker at the International Society of Painters, Sculptors and Engravers in London, then a bronze version at the Salon in Paris. Friendship with Gwendolen Mary John (1876-1939), an English painter, woman of letters, and sister of the painter Augustus John. She became the mistress of Rodin and was his model for the Whistler Muse. International exhibition in Dusseldorf.
1905	65 years old	Rodin was appointed member of the Conseil Supérieur des Beaux-Arts and awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Iéna.
1906	66 years old	Rodin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Glasgow. The Thinker was placed in front of the Pantheon. Rodin was appointed titular member of the Berlin Academy of Fine Arts. He painted a series of watercolours of Cambodian dancers who performed at the Colonial Exhibition in Marseilles. He met the Japanese dancer Hanako (1868-1945) who posed for him for the first time in 1907.
1907	67 years old	Rodin was granted an Honorary Doctorate by Oxford University. The first major exhibition devoted exclusively to his drawings at the Galerie Bernheim Jeune in Paris. The Walking Man (large model) was exhibited at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.
1908	68 years old	The Cathedral. Thanks to Rilke, Rodin discovered the Hôtel Biron (now the Rodin Museum in Paris) and moved in. Major exhibitions of drawings in Vienna, Leipzig and Paris.
1909	69 years old	Decision to sell the Hôtel Biron. Major exhibition of drawings at the Galerie Devambez in Paris. First draft of a donation to the State drawn up by Paul Escudier.
1910	70 years old	Rodin was appointed Grand Officer of the Légion d'Honneur. Exhibition of drawings at the Gil Blas Salle des Fêtes in Paris.
1911	71 years old	Royal exhibition of the Berlin Fine Arts Academy. The State commissioned a Bust of Puvis de Chavannes for the Pantheon. Acquisition of The Burghers of Calais by England for the Westminster garden. The Walking Man was installed in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. L'Art, Entretiens Réunis, by Paul Gsell, was published by Bernard Grasset, Paris.
1912	72 years old	Rodin exhibition in Tokyo. Display of drawings at the Nouvelle Bibliothèque in Lyons. Inauguration of the Rodin Room in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
1913	73 years old	Internment of Camille Claudel in an asylum. Exhibition at the Faculty of Medicine in Paris where Rodin's collection of antiques were shown for the first time. Rodin went to London to supervise the installation of The Burghers of Calais in front of the Parliament.
1914	74 years old	Publication by Armand Colin of the Cathédrales de France, illustrated with 100 facsimiles by Auguste Clot, and a preface by Charles Morice. Rodin fled the war and left France for England with Rose, in the company of Judith Cladel. He stayed in Rome with the Marshalls.
1915	75 years old	Another trip to Rome during which Rodin sculpted a Bust of Pope Benedict XV. The Burghers of Calais was unveiled officially in London without a ceremony. Exhibition of sixteen of the eighteen works donated to England at the Royal Scottish Academy of Edinburgh.
1916	76 years old	Rodin fell seriously ill. Three successive donations (1st April, 13 September and 25 October) of Rodin's collections to the State. The Chamber of Deputies and then the Senate accepted the donation, and the National Assembly voted for the establishment of the Rodin Museum in the Hôtel Biron. Rodin received an order for a monument to commemorate the soldiers of Verdun.
1917	77 years old	Rodin married Rose Beuret on 29 January in Meudon. Rose died on 14 February and Rodin died on 17 November. He was buried in Meudon on 24 November, next to Rose. Their tomb is dominated by The Thinker.
1919	.	A decree officially established the Rodin Museum which opened its doors to the public on 4 August 1919.