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.