Contribution Receipt of the Special American Hospital in Paris for Wounds of the Face and Jaw
Auguste Rodin French
Not on view
Best known for his influential sculptural work in the late nineteenth century, Rodin adjusted his artistic focus during the war. The trench warfare that characterized World War I was particularly conducive to facial injuries. Shrapnel and gunfire left men with garish facial scarring and mutilation. The Special American Hospital in Paris for Wounds to the Face and Jaw offered reconstructive surgery for injured soldiers. (Many techniques developed during this period are still used in plastic surgery today.) This print served both as a receipt for donations to the hospital and as an illustration of the kind of transformation the surgery could achieve. About the war, Rodin wrote, "The patience of the soldier, the patience of the trenches, surpasses in sublimity the virtues of the ancients. Will it produce a rebirth of intelligence?"
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