Description
Sometimes called “The Weeping Burgher,” this Rodin sculpture portrays Andrieu d’Andres on his way to execution. The piece has roots in France’s Third Republic, which, following its humiliating loss to Prussia in 1870, looked to revive ideals of heroism and civic duty. Calais’s city council acted on this impulse in 1884, commissioning Rodin to honor Eustache de Saint-Pierre—one of six prominent citizens who, in 1347, had volunteered themselves as hostages during the English siege of Calais, begging for mercy on behalf of their besieged town.
