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Auguste Rodin was trained at the Little School of Lecoq de Boisbaudran by observing and copying from Greco-Roman Antiquity, in the 1850s, at the Louvre Museum, but also through the books and engravings of the Imperial Library.
His trip to Italy in 1876-1877 allowed him to admire the art of Michelangelo, whose talent dazzled him.
He then shows little interest in the prevailing Egyptomania of the 19th century with all the Egyptological discoveries of the time.
However, it was when he reached artistic maturity that he turned to Egyptian sculpture. The artist is seduced by the masters of his profession and goes to meet their works in search of lessons to solve the problems that arise with his deep knowledge of his art. He discovered a real predilection for pharaonic art and collected originals and copies in his studio.
In 1871, Rodin left France for Belgium in the wake of his patron Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (1824-1887) and settled in Brussels until 1877, the year of the exhibition of L’Âge d’airain at the Brussels Art Circle.
He then became friends with many Belgian artists and in 1871 met the history painter Modeste Carlier (1820-1878).
Carlier, who was to execute a decorative painting for the staircase of the Museum of Brussels, asked Rodin to make him a drawing of the Sphinx of the Louvre.
His first sketch did not suit his friend’s project, who wanted a front view of the Sphinx, so he asked Rodin to visit the Egyptian rooms.
Auguste Rodin,
The Walking Man, 1964, bronze © musée Rodin, ph. C. Baraja