"The Rodin arrived yesterday.
It is absolutely beautiful and rests on a pedestal in my dining room.
I could not be more pleased.

I'm a painter and a long time admirer of Rodin from having spent days admiring the diverse collection at The Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, where I grew up, to being lost in wide-eyed wonder while visiting The Rodin Museum in Paris.

Thank you for so much for effectively capturing the strength of his work.
So often reproductions lack the sensitivity of the original, which here is clearly not the case.
Les Bourgeois de Calais is one of my favorites and I have had the honor of seeing it in person from several collections. Your casting of Eustache de Saint-Pierre is fantastic."

Thank you!
Sincerely,
W.P.

Offered here is a spectacular inspired reproduction of Eustache de Saint-Pierre. The bearded man, who was the richest, oldest, and most prominent citizen of the group and the first to volunteer in the Burghers of Calais (Les Bourgeois de Calais). He expresses a sense of dignity despite what appears to be public humiliation and the weight of the whole world on his shoulders. This important sculpture of Rodin is one of the most famous sculptures he created, completed in 1889. It serves as a monument to an occurrence in 1347 during the Hundred Years' War, when Calais, an important French port on the English Channel, was under siege by the English for over a year.

The story goes that England's Edward III, after a victory in the Battle of Crécy, laid siege to Calais, while Philip VI of France ordered the city to hold out at all costs. Philip failed to lift the siege, and starvation eventually forced the city to parley for surrender.

Edward offered to spare the people of the city if any six of its top leaders would surrender themselves to him, presumably to be executed. Edward demanded that they walk out almost naked, wearing nooses around their necks, and carrying the keys to the city and castle. One of the wealthiest of the town leaders, Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first, and five other burghers soon followed suit, stripping down to their breeches. Saint Pierre led this envoy of emaciated volunteers to the city gates. It was this moment, and this poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice, and willingness to face imminent death that Rodin captured in his sculpture, scaled somewhat larger than life.

In history, though the burghers expected to be executed, their lives were spared by the intervention of England's Queen, Philippa of Hainault, who persuaded her husband to exercise mercy by claiming that their deaths would be a bad omen for her unborn child.

Click the Play Button for your option to view this Sculpture with the Music of Bach in the Background