Rodin's Portrait of Balzac is one of the most talked about and discussed works in the history of Western sculpture, but it is also a great work of epoch-making significance.
This piece breaks the previous realistic main style, abandons the subtle portrait, deletes the complicated and simplified, and takes the appearance of the gods, and is closer to the freehand style in oriental art, just like Liang Kai's "Splashing Ink Immortal Figure" and "Taibai Xing Yin Tu" in the history of Chinese painting. With unparalleled artistic shock, he has a deep understanding of the indomitable spirit and courage embodied in Balzac.
This work liberates the realism of the carved boat and sword in the figure sculpture, thus giving it a sporty and symbolic aesthetic core, opening the precursor of Western modern sculpture with a future-oriented attitude, leading a new artistic trend, its wild and uninhibited artistic value and the historical value of the thick vicissitudes are perfectly integrated, breaking through the strict barriers between imagination and reality, breaking through the wall, giving it a sense of eternal faith, and becoming an artistic peak in the history of Western sculpture.
Rodin later said: "I think about his passionate work, his hard life, his endless battles, his great boldness and spirit, and I try to show all of this". "My portrait of Balzac, his dynamics and appearance are reminiscent of his life, his thoughts and social environment, he is inseparable from social life, he is a real living person. "'The Portrait of Balzac' is the pinnacle of my life, the result of all my life's struggles, the epitome of my aesthetic ideals."