Issues to consider

While looking at Project... Defense of Paris you may want to think about some pertinant issues.
          The Call to Arms was created to function as a war memorial. Since it was rejected by the competition for which it was produced, it may be said that at that time it was unsuccessful. Fifty years later, however, it was executed by the Dutch Government and erected as a memorial for the dead of War World I.
          First you may want to define for yourself what the ultimate purpose of a war memorial is. Is this purpose the same in every culture and time period? How might you account for the failure of The Call to Arms in the nineteenth century and its success in the twentieth century? Rodin believed that it was rejected in 1879 because it was too violent. Why do you think it was rejected?
          As a potential public monument, The Call to Arms may have been required to coincide with popular or government sentiment concerning its subject, the Franco-Prussian War. The content of this sculpture, however, does not immediately recall a particular war, but rather because of the absence of a uniform on the soldier and the use of an allegorized figure in the Genius of War, could concern any or all wars. Another such universalizing monument which was not immediately successful is the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. Could this ambiguity in representing a war reflect the ambivalent feelings of the artist and even the culture concerning the specific war and war in general? To answer this, you might look at an example of a "successful" war memorial, one of which can be found from World War II, that of Iwo Jima. How is this monument different from The Call to Arms and the Vietnam Memorial?
         

Bibliography for further reading:

Auguste Rodin:
First see Nineteenth Century art surveys, listed on introductory page, their bibliography will have further readings

War Memorials and Public Monuments:

Critical Issues in Public Art: Content, Context, and Controversy edited by Harriet F. Senie and Sally Webster (New York: Icon Editions, 1992) Art: N8835/.C75/1992

War Memorials as Political Landscape: The American experience and beyond by James M. Mavo (New York: Praeger, 1988) Art: E159/.M43/1988

Sculpture:

Hollow Icons: The Politics of Sculpture in Nineteenth-Century France by Albert Boime (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University, 1987) Art NB547/.B64/1987

Restore