This is from the list of Memorials of Land Services.
(c) Glasgow City Council (Museums)
Information provided by Robert Wenley
A sculpture by Rodin with this title is indeed in the Burrell
Collection, one of four Rodin bronzes displayed in the main courtyard.
The Burrell sculpture is in fact one of several bronze casts*, at c.112
cm high, made after Rodin's original small-scale terracotta model of
1879, which itself was his - completely unsuccessful - submission to a
competition run by the Prefecture de la Seine for a war memorial to
commemorate those who had died defending Paris during the Franco-Prussian
war (1870). The Burrell bronze is very much displayed and interpreted as
a work of art (and would have been acquired by Burrell, in 1921, as
such) rather than as a war memorial.
In 1916, just before his own death (1917), Rodin authorised an
enlargement of his orginal model, to be cast in bronze as a monument to the
defence of Verdun (where it was placed in 1920). This monument (about 5
metres high) had been commissioned by a group Dutchmen who wished to
offer a work in homage to France and Lorraine.
Images of the Burrell bronze can be obtained via Winnie Tyrrell,
Photo-library Co-ordinator, based here at the Burrell.
*There is another cast in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh
(bought directly by the donor from Rodin in 1897).
With best wishes
Robert Wenley
Curator of European Art 1600-1800
Culture & Leisure Services (Museums)