Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is widely regarded as the pre-eminent sculptor of the 19th century who in turn influenced many of the great sculptors of the 20th century.

However it is only in recent decades that his watercolours, drawings and graphic works have begun to be seriously reassessed and also seen by a wider public at major retrospective exhibitions, for example National Gallery of Art, Washington (1972 & 1982), Hayward Gallery (1986), Royal Academy (2006) and St. Tropez & Seoul (2010).

The drawings made by Rodin during the last decades of his life were often of explicitly erotic nude figures and for that reason were not initially exhibited in public.