Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated.

In 1889 the Paris Salon invited Rodin to be a judge on its artistic jury. Rodin requested permission to stay in the Hotel Biron a museum of his works but the director of the museum refused to let him stay there. Departing with centuries of tradition he turned away from the idealism of the Greeks and the decorative beauty of the Baroque and neo-Baroque movements.

Rodin was sensitive to the controversy surrounding his work but refused to change his style. He was schooled traditionally took a craftsman-like approach to his work and desired academic recognition although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art. His sculptures suffered a decline in popularity after his death in 1917 but within a few decades his legacy solidified.