In 1884, the mayor of Calais awarded Rodin the commission
for a public monument dedicated to six townsmen, or burghers,
who heroically offered up their own lives in exchange for an
end to the siege of their city during the Hundred Years’ War
in the fourteenth century. One of Rodin’s most important
contributions to the history of sculpture, this radically conceived
monument portrayed six men barefoot, on the same plane, shuffling endlessly, their gestures
and faces expressing their internal anguish.