Near the end of his life, the master sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) hired the poet Rainer Maria Rilke to serve as his secretary. Intensely sensitive to art and able to express this
awareness in prose of great lyricism and clarity, in 1903 Rilke published a profound meditation on the unique power of Rodin’s sculpture. Written around a chronology of Rodin’s work, it is
also an introduction to some of the greatest sculpture of the 19th century. A translation was soon produced by the American poet and artist Jessie Lemont. Unavailable for many years,
this translation is reprinted here together with Rilke’s original illustrations.
