Study of an arm 1875 - 1915

This is Auguste Rodin’s plaster study of an arm, created sometime during his career in late 19th and early 20th century France. Rodin lived in a time of great political and social upheaval in France, experiencing the Franco-Prussian War and the rise of the Third Republic. His sculptures often reflected the emotional intensity of the era. You can sense that turmoil in the tension held in the clenched fist. Rodin broke from academic traditions, and instead focused on capturing raw emotion and movement. It also exemplifies Rodin’s practice of fragmenting the human body to convey powerful emotional states; isolating the arm, a symbol of labor and action, allows the viewer to focus on the expression held in the hand. In this way, Rodin prompts us to consider the connection between physical action, emotional expression, and human experience. What is the arm reaching for, or fighting against?