Despairing Adolescent 1882 - 1980

Rodin made this bronze sculpture, Despairing Adolescent, sometime in the late 19th century. It's like he grabbed a moment, a feeling, and froze it in time. The way the light catches on the surface, it's not smooth, it's got this raw, almost unfinished quality. You can see the marks of his hands, the tools he used. Look at how the figure is arching, reaching upwards, but there's this tension, this pull downwards too. It's like he's trapped, not just by the material, but by something inside himself. That roughness, that texture, it’s not just about how the sculpture looks, it's about how it feels. Rodin was always pushing, experimenting with form and emotion. You see this kind of raw emotion in other artists like Schiele. Art is about more than just pretty pictures, it's about digging deep, wrestling with the stuff that makes us human.