ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the sculpture is a memorial on three different levels: it commemorates an event in the fourteenth century; it reflects political ideas in the nineteenth; and its erection in public in London in 1915 relates it to the First World War. The London sculpture is the fourth cast, and the last to be erected in Auguste Rodin’s lifetime; the other two are in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen and the Musee de Mariemont, in Mariemont, Belgium. The Fund's Committee decided to see whether an outdoor setting for the piece could be found in London, in which case they were willing to provide the money for the acquisition and to present it to the nation. In due course Rodin, who from several earlier visits to London knew the city well, was consulted, and wrote in November 1911 that instead he wished for a very tall pedestal, and for a location within metres of the Victoria Tower.
