Skip Navigation

Study for France or Saint George (Étude pour la France, ou Saint Georges)

European Art

Rodin used the features of his assistant and lover, the sculptor Camille Claudel, for this allegorical personification of France despite the fact that their relationship had ended at least ten years earlier.

Claudel met Rodin during the early 1880s, while he was working on The Gates of Hell. She assisted him with this and other projects, and her features can be recognized in many of his sculptures. She was a gifted artist in her own right but grew increasingly fearful that Rodin was preventing her from receiving commissions and professional recognition. She became reclusive, and in 1913 her family committed her to a mental asylum, abruptly ending her artistic career. She died in the asylum in 1943.
MEDIUM Bronze
  • Place Made: France
  • DATES ca. 1903, cast 1982
    DIMENSIONS 20 x 17 3/4 x 13 7/8 in. (50.8 x 45.1 x 35.2 cm)  (show scale)
    MARKINGS Back, lower edge, proper left: "E. GODARD FONDR" Back, lower edge, proper right: "© BY MUSÉE RODIN 1982"
    SIGNATURE Proper left shoulder: "Rodin"
    INSCRIPTIONS Proper left shoulder: "No I/III"
    COLLECTIONS European Art
    ACCESSION NUMBER 84.75.7
    CREDIT LINE Gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1917). Study for France or Saint George (Étude pour la France, ou Saint Georges), ca. 1903, cast 1982. Bronze, 20 x 17 3/4 x 13 7/8 in. (50.8 x 45.1 x 35.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, 84.75.7. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 84.75.7_bw.jpg)
    EDITION Edition: I/III/12
    IMAGE overall, 84.75.7_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.