Émile-Antoine Bourdelle was born in Montauban, France on October 30, 1861. Moving to Paris in 1885, Bourdelle became an assistant to Auguste Rodin in 1893, Rodin’s influence is evident in many of Bourdelle’s early sculptures. By 1900, he had begun receiving commissions for a number of theaters and later taught classes at his studio to young artist such as Alberto Giacometti and Otto Gutfreund. It was around this time period that Bourdelle began freeing himself from the style of Rodin to find his own way of working. Today, his works are held in the collections of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., among others.