Auguste Rodin, the greatest sculptor of the 19th century, is also widely considered to be the greatest since Michelangelo, whose genius was a lifelong inspiration to him. Though the astonishingly life-like quality of his sculpture was in defiance of academic conventions, Rodin did not have to face the prolonged and bitter hostility meted out to the Impressionist painters who were his contemporaries, and in later life he became a famous and widely respected figure.

Bernard Champigneulle analyses Rodin's significance as an innovator in sculpture. For Rodin created an entirely new form - the detail considered as a finished work - and in doing so exercised a lasting influence on his successors.

This important and authoritative monograph combines a searching reappraisal of Rodin's achievement with a revealing account of his personality and of his troubled private life.

The late Bernard Champigneulle was vice president of the Association de Critiques d'Art and a member of the Comite de la Presse Artistique.