Francois-Auguste-Rene Rodin was born on Nov. 12, 1840, in Paris.
At the age of 14 he entered the Petite Ecole, a school of
decorative arts in Paris. He applied three times to study at the
renowned Ecole des Beaux-Arts but was rejected each time. In
1858 he began to do decorative stonework in order to make his
living. Four years later the death of his sister Marie so
traumatized Rodin that he entered a sacred order. The father
superior of the order recognized Rodin's talents and encouraged
him to pursue his art. In 1864 Rodin met a seamstress named Rose
Beuret. She became his life companion and was the model for many
of his works. That year Rodin submitted his Man with a Broken
Nose to the Paris Salon. It was rejected but later accepted
under the title Portrait of a Roman. Rodin traveled in 1875 to
Italy, where the works of Michelangelo made a strong impression
on him. The trip inspired his sculpture The Age of Bronze, which
was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1877. It caused a scandal
because the critics coul