Which sculpture did Auguste Rodin submit to the 1864 Paris Salon under the title The Man with the Broken Nose?

The sculpture Auguste Rodin submitted to the 1864 Paris Salon under the title The Man with the Broken Nose was The Man with the Broken Nose.

The work was based on an elderly Parisian street laborer known as Bibi, whose weathered face fascinated Rodin. Instead of idealizing the sitter, Rodin emphasized wrinkles, asymmetry, rough texture, and the damaged nose. This direct treatment helped establish the uncompromising realism that would remain central to his sculpture.

The Salon rejected the original plaster in 1864, although a marble version was accepted several years later. The work is important because it shows Rodin challenging academic expectations before he became internationally famous. Its subject is not a mythological hero or polished historical figure, but an ordinary contemporary man.

The sculpture is sometimes confused with The Age of Bronze, which caused a different controversy in the 1870s. The Man with the Broken Nose belongs to Rodin’s early Paris period and was one of his first major Salon submissions.