In the midst of 19th century France, the country was revolutionizing, the economy was stabilizing, and the arts were flourishing. Salons were popping up everywhere, and skilled artists were given a celebrity-type personality as their works were displayed in galleries across the country and noticed by royalty. Painting and sculpture were the two main types of art forms to be approved, until photography was born in the late 19th century. Many different artistic styles and techniques flourished by 19th century artists, giving works a unified appearance, with unique distinctions between artists. Two artists who had a similar, but different atheistic purpose in creation are the artists Edgar Degas and Augste Rodin. Although Degas was primarily recognized as a painter, in his later years he found a new purpose for sculpture as an aid to his paintings. In contrast, Augste Rodin focused on sculpture throughout his life and flourished in his later years. Through examining the similarities and differences between the artists, Degas and Rodin, and their works, the development, meaning and purpose of 19th-century sculptural art is explained. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay On July 19, 1834, in Paris, France, Celestine Musson De Gas, a Creole from New Orleans, and Augstin De Gas, a banker, welcomed their eldest son, Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De, into the world Gas. Edgar Degas grew up in a moderately wealthy family, was the eldest of 5 children, and loved painting as a child. He began his studies at the age of 11 at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, a public secondary school. Unfortunately, shortly thereafter, when Degas was only 13 years old, his mother died, leaving him raised and heavily influenced by his father and grandfather. However, Degas continued his studies and graduated from the Lycée in 1853 at the age of 18 with a degree in literature, although painting was still his passion. After graduation, Degas signed up as a copyist at the Louvre Museum, but his father protested and insisted that he go to law school. Following his father's wishes, Edgar enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Paris in the November following his graduation, but paid little attention to his classes and put little effort into his studies. In 1855 he met Jean Auste Dominque Ingres, who became a lifelong idol of Degas and gave him advice on how to be an artist. Ingres stated: “Draw lines, young man, and more lines, both from life and memory and you will become a good artist” (Bade). Following Ingres' advice, Degas was admitted to the Ecole des Beaux Arts where he studied drawing. A year later he traveled to Italy and stayed with his aunt for 3 years, creating his first masterpiece, The Bellelli Family. After the creation of his first painting, Degas returned to Paris, France, and obtained a studio space in the heart of the city from which he began working. In 1865 he exhibited for the first time in the salon a painting entitled War Scene in the Middle Ages, which unfortunately received very little attention. Shortly after his painting's debut, the Franco-Prussian War broke out, forcing Degas to enlist in the National Guard where he served for a short time, before being dismissed due to poor eyesight. After leaving the war, Degas went to America to spend a short time with some of his mother's relatives in New Orleans, Louisiana. After his stay in Louisiana, Degas returned to Paris, inspired and began working with a small group of emerging artists who rebelled against the salon by creating and exhibiting their own works and exhibitions independently (Brodskaya). The group of young artists is now known as theImpressionists, with whom Degas worked, staging and participating in 8 different shows over the course of 12 years. However, in 1886, Degas and the Impressionists disbanded because the Impressionist movement became too popular and Degas did not get along with some members. He often made fun of painters like Monet for painting outdoors, calling it childish and unprofessional. During his time with the Impressionists, the only Degas sculpture that was shown during his lifetime was exhibited. In 1881, Degas exhibited The Little 14-Year-Old Dancer at one of the Impressionist galas. Critics found the realism of the sculpture extraordinary, but thought the dancer herself was unattractive. Little Dancer of 14 was one of the first mixed media works to be shown, and also one of the few sculptures that Degas created as sculpture, rather than as an aid to painting (Brodskaya). Many of Degas' sculptures featured tiny figures of ballerinas, no more than 18 inches tall, which he sculpted and then sat on the windowsill as a reference to his paintings (Clare). During the last years of Degas' life, his eyesight became very poor due to macular degeneration and he would place the sculpted figures on the windowsill and use the shapes he saw with the shadows and light cast through the figures as a means of capturing the 'image. image and paint it on canvas. During his lifetime, Degas created a large amount of sculpture over the last four decades of his life, but most of the sculptures remained invisible until after his death in 1918 (Clare). That said, Degas never saw any of his sculptures cast in bronze during his lifetime, but only saw the creations in wax and generated himself. After Degas' death, the heirs of his studio found 150 of his wax sculptures, 74 of which they cast in bronze. Adrien Herbrad, owner of a local foundry, cast Degas' sculptures via surmoulages, a process of copying the original sculpture in bronze and then casting it. Unfortunately, the surmoulages are a bit smaller and show less surface detail than the original mold or bronze sculpture, but restoring and creating Degas sculptures so that they last forever was still a skillful technique. Unlike Degas, who saw only one of his sculptures cast in bronze in his lifetime, Rodin was fortunate enough to witness many of his sculptures cast in bronze as well as celebrated. Francoise-Augste-Rene Rodin, born November 12, 1840, in Paris, France, was the second child of parents Marie Cheffere and Jean Baptise Rodin. Raised in a working-class family, Rodin was primarily self-taught and began drawing at the age of 10. From the age of 14 to 17, Rodin attended the Petite Ecole, a school specializing in art and mathematics, where he studied drawing and painting. In his final year of school, in an attempt to enter the Grand Ecole, Rodin presented a clay model of a classmate. Unfortunately, Rodin was not accepted into the Grande Ecole, and was also denied the other 2 times he applied. Since admission to the Grande Ecole was not considered very difficult, being rejected 3 different times was a major obstacle for Rodin as a teenager. After being rejected by the Grande Ecole, Rodin left the Petite Ecole, in 1857, where he became a craftsman for most of the next two decades. However, in 1863, Rodin's older sister died of peritonitis. Rodin felt guilty for his sister's death because he had introduced her to an unfaithful suitor and, because of the guilt, he turned away from art. Due to the grief and guilt of losing his sister, Rodin joined a Catholic order where Saint Peter Julian encouraged Rodin to continue with his sculptural works. Rodin returned toworking as a decorator and craftsman, but also took lessons with the infamous animal sculptor, Antoine-Louise Barye. Bayre taught Rodin the importance of detail and capturing movement in sculpture. Returning once again to his pursuit of arts and sculpture, in 1864, Rodin began to live with Rose Beuret, a young seamstress. 2 years later, she bore him her first child, a son, Augeste-Eugene Beuret and Rodin also joined the studio of Albert Ernest Carrier Belleuse.Rodin worked as Belleuse's chief assistant until 1870, designing roof decorations, staircases and embellishments of doors. During his time as Belleuse's chief assistant, Rodin was conscripted to serve in the National Guard during the Franco-Prussian War. However, similar to Degas, Rodin was released from service due to his nearsightedness and horrible eyesight. After the war, Belleuse asked Rodin to join him in Belgium, where they collaborated on the decoration of the Brussels Stock Exchange. Unfortunately, shortly after moving to Belgium, the relationship between Rodin and Belleuse deteriorated, but Rodin still took Rose and her son to stay with him in Brussels. After the argument with Belleuse, Rodin travels to Italy for 2 months in search of new inspiration. It was in Italy that Rodin fell in love with the works of Donatello and Michelangelo. Rodin states: "It is Michelangelo who freed me from academic sculpture" (Clare). After gaining new inspiration, Rodin returned to Paris and worked on his first exhibited sculpture, The Age of Bronze. Because the piece was so technically advanced, Rodin attracted attention with The Age of Bronze because critics accused him of choosing a live model to create it, essentially cheating. Enraged by the rumors, Rodin forced newspapers and journalists to take photographs of the actual sculpture and the model to highlight key differences between the two (Rilke). Furthermore, in response to the accusations, in 1878 Rodin created his second male opera, The Preaching of St. John the Baptist. St. John the Baptist preaching was larger than life, 6 feet 7 inches tall, to make it anatomically impossible to be unwrapped by a model. In 1880, as a semblance of a peace offering, Belleuse offered Rodin a part-time position as a designer at the Serveres National Porcelain Factory. Shortly after accepting Belleuse's offer, Rodin met Edmund Turquet, undersecretary of the Ministry of Fine Arts, in a French salon, who commissioned Rodin to create a portal designed for the Museum of Decorative Arts. The planned portal is known as the Gate of Hell, one of Rodin's most infamous pieces, featuring many of his famous sculptures such as The Kiss, The Three Shadows and The Thinker. With the Gates of Hell commission came free studio space, which gave Rodin artistic freedom and more time to work on private commissions. After Hell's Gate, most of Rodin's sculptures at the height of his career became commissioned pieces. One of Rodin's most famous commissions is the Burghers of Calais. Rodin began work on Burghers of Calais in 1884, after being commissioned by Calais to create the work as a tribute to its citizens. The work was commissioned to commemorate 6 citizens of Calais who offered their lives in sacrifice to save the city. After a battle during the Hundred Years' War, King Edward III's army attacked Calais and ordered the city's entire population killed en masse. He would only spare the citizens if six of the city's leading citizens sacrificed themselves to be killed in the citizens' place. Valiously the six citizens offered themselves to King Edward III, with shaved heads, bare feet and with ropes around their necks. King Edward III ordered the sacrificial citizens to be executed, but the citizensthey were spared by his queen's pleas for pardon. Because of the intensity of emotion related to the sacrificial citizens, Rodin designed the citizens of Calais to be seen at ground level so that viewers could see the looks of desperation and anxiety on the sculpted faces and so viewers could connect emotionally with sculpture (Rilke) . In contrast, Burghers of Calais was originally displayed on a podium and was only exhibited on the ground floor, years after Rodin's death. Although Degas was primarily a painter and Rodin a sculptor, there were some similarities between them as artists and their works. Both artists grew up in Paris, France, in the mid-19th century, primarily self-taught and served in the French National Guard. Additionally, both artists applied to schools and salons and were initially rejected, forcing them to seek education and inspiration elsewhere. Both artists traveled and found inspiration from the artists of their time, as well as some of the greats who came before them. Sculpturally, both artists show their hand in their work, meaning there is a noticeable texture and movement in the sculpture relative to where each distinct hand mark was made. Additionally, both artists worked in bronze, however Degas' works were never cast until after his death. The similarities between the artists show the unification of art in the 19th century, as well as the idea that all art forms, whether painting or sculpture, can be linked to each other. Although there were some similarities, Degas and Rodin were also very different as artists. Degas was primarily a painter and focused mainly on the fleeting movements of ballerinas, with well-known sculpture. Rodin was a well-known sculptor, focused on pieces that embodied significant events, with paintings or drawings almost unknown, despite attending school for the media. Technically, in the bronzing process, many of Degas' bronze sculptures are cast by surmoulouges, meaning that Degas constructs a form and then an exact cast is made from it. On the contrary, Rodin was very angry when his sculptures were accused of being surmoulouges. Rodin instead practiced a miniature-making technique, having assistants recreate the structure on a larger scale, then having molds made from the individual parts and forming all the bronze pieces together. Furthermore, the purpose for which the artists made their sculptures was different. Degas used sculpture primarily as an aid to his painting techniques in the last years of his life, when his eyesight began to deteriorate. Rodin created sculptures to commemorate significant events or people, and in the last years of his life he worked primarily on commission. Working mostly on commission in the latter part of his life, Rodin flourished in the latter part of his career. He was a well-known and famous artist and received commissions to create busts of prominent people from all over the world. After Rodin's death, he handed over his studio to the French state and gave permission to make casts of his plaster casts. A few years after his death on November 17, 1917, the Rodin Museum was inaugurated in 1919, containing the largest collection of Rodin's works. The Museum's collection includes over 6,000 sculptures by Rodin and over 7,000 sketches and works on paper. It is said that Rodin was recognized as one of the greatest artists of his era. Unfortunately, Degas's last years and the final part of his career were not as fascinating as Rodin's. Degas continued to work with pastels, photography and sculpture until 1912. However, Degas became.