Pierre de Wiessant

Pierre de Wissant is a bronze sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin, part of his sculptural group The Burghers of Calais. This sculpture represents one of the six burghers who, according to Jean Froissart surrendered themselves in 1347, at the beginning of the Hundred Years' War (1337 to 1453), in order to save the inhabitants of the French city of Calais from the English laying siege to the city. Between 1884 and 1886, Rodin created nude studies of each of the burghers, then draped them in wet canvas in order to determine how the human figures would look clothed with sackcloth, as their real-life counterparts were supposed to have worn when surrendering to Edward III of England.