A corresponding member of the Vienna Secession, French sculptor Auguste Rodin submitted works for its exhibitions beginning in 1898. The ninth Secession exhibition marked the high point of his involvement, with many of his major works prominently displayed, including Eve, The Age of Iron, The Burghers of Calais, and Rodin’s monument to the great French writer Honoré de Balzac—now considered among his greatest works though met at the time with considerable disapproval. 

Rodin and Vienna examines the sculptor’s influence on Austrian art and traces the history of the annual Secession shows and Rodin’s many contributions. Part of the Belvedere Gallery’s collection ever since, these masterpieces are here joined by later additions and selected works on loan in order to illustrate the way Rodin wrestled with form. Individual chapters by selected Rodin experts place works into their rightful contexts and demonstrate how the artist made use of his contacts in bourgeois society and intellectual circles to fulfill his ambitions and further his career.