George Wyndham 1904

This is Auguste Rodin’s bronze bust of George Wyndham, and what grabs me first is the finish of the surface, the way the light just glides across it. It makes me think about how Rodin wasn’t just representing someone, but was in dialogue with the material itself. Look closely, and you can see how the bronze has been worked, almost like a painting. There's a real tension between the smoothness of the skin and the roughness of the tool marks. The way the moustache has been sculpted with these tiny ridges, that’s where the real character is, right? Those little details, they're what bring the whole sculpture to life. Rodin's work is often compared to Michelangelo, and you can see why in the way he captures the weight and presence of the human form. It is like art is an ongoing conversation, each artist building on what came before, but always finding their own way to express something new. It’s what makes art so endlessly fascinating, isn’t it?