Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) had been widely known for decades when the young Bohemian-Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke traveled to Paris to interview him for an essay to be published in a German art book series. Intensely sensitive to art, and in particular to the irreducible power of objects, Rilke responded to Rodin’s work in prose of great lyricism and clarity. His essay, a sustained and deeply personal meditation on Rodin’s sculpture, was published in 1903. Loosely structured around a chronology of Rodin’s life, it serves as an engaging introduction to both the sculpture of Rodin and the maturing sensibility of its author.