Monument to Balzac

The Monument to Balzac is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, easily identified by the writer’s massive, robe-shrouded figure and head tilted defiantly toward the sky. It stands at the intersection of boulevard Raspail and boulevard du Montparnasse. Commissioned in eighteen ninety-one by the Société des Gens de Lettres, the project consumed seven years of the sculptor's life. Rather than a conventional portrait, Rodin sought to capture the creative spirit of Honoré de Balzac by depicting him wrapped in the loose monk’s habit he famously wore while working late into the night.