Tête de Balzac

Overall view from above right; Abandoning the idea of making a true likeness of Balzac, Rodin decided to express the writer’s creative force. He focused on the main facial features (mouth, nose, arches of the eyebrows, thick masses of hair) and emphasized their relief to create a powerful effect of contrast. Rodin enjoyed reworking the studies made for his major works and producing works that differed in size and medium. This is why he entrusted an enlargement of one of the final studies for the head of Balzac (1898) to Paul Jeanneney, a wealthy engineer turned enlightened potter, so that he could translate it into stoneware. Although Rodin never saw the head of Balzac in bronze, he experimented in a series of ceramic casts with the effect of different colors imitating the patina of aging bronze, in cooperation with Jeanneney who produced the best glazed stoneware of the Art Nouveau period. [S.1934 is another copy in a dark brown glaze also owned by Musée Rodin.] Donated to the museum by Rodin in 1916. Source: Musée Rodin [website]; http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/ (accessed 5/12/2014