Modeled 1863; cast 1925

Father Pierre-Julien Eymard

French, 1840 - 1917

Distraught over the death of his older sister, the young Rodin entered a monastery for about five months in 1862–63, during which time he made this portrait of Father Pierre-Julien Eymard (French, 1811–1868). The pronounced bone structure and hollows of Father Eymard’s face, as well as his hornlike locks of hair, suggest some of the sculptor’s expressive potential, and stand in contrast to the stiff treatment of the clerical clothing and the scroll on which the priest’s Latin prayer is inscribed.