A Frenchman whose modernist style redefined sculpture in the 19th century, Auguste Rodin moved it from Academic and Neo-Classical to Impressionism and Realism. In fact, he did work that was so life-like, he was accused of making casts from live bodies. He also dealt with erotic and political themes that spoke of contemporary issues eschewed as inapprpriate by fine art academics of his era.

Rodin was raised in a hard working, religious family in Mouffetard, an historic section of Paris. He was born in 1840, shortly after his parents, Marie Cheffer and Jean-Baptiste Rodin, had moved from the countryside to the city, where his father had a job as a clerk in the police department. Rodin had difficulty with school subje...