Of Auguste Rodin one thing may be said without fear of contradiction: among his contemporaries to-day he is preeminently the master. Born at Paris, 1840, -the natal year of his friends, Claude Monet and Zola-in humble circumstances, without a liberal education, the young Rodin had to fight from the beginning; fight for bread as well as an art schooling. He was not even sure of his vocation. An accident determined it."