In his 1969 documentary series Civilisation, Kenneth Clark said Rodin's statue of Balzac is "the greatest piece of sculpture of the nineteenth century — perhaps, indeed, since Michelangelo," continuing that, "Balzac, with his prodigious understanding of human motives scorns conventional values, defies fashionable opinions, as Beethoven did, and should inspire us to defy all those forces that threaten to impair our humanity: lies, tanks, tear gas, ideologies, opinion polls, mechanisation, planners, computers—the whole lot.

"[4] The Société des Gens de Lettres (Paris, France) considered four different artists for the sculptural work before it was given to Rodin.

After the death of Chapu, the recently elected president of the Societé, Émile Zola strongly supported Rodin for the job and, so, the artist submitted a proposal to have a completed three-meter statue of the French novelist within an eighteen-month period which was approved.

Each sketch evolved and transformed into a different representation of the novelist varying from phallic nudes to heavily clothed and hidden figures.

In 1894, the Societé threatened to step in legally with the commission, turn the job over to artist Alexandre Falguière and take away Rodin's payment.

In a message to writer Charles Chincholle in May 1898, Rodin explained his artistic pursuit: The only thing I realize today is that the neck is too strong.

Through the exaggerated neck I wanted to represent strength I realize that the execution exceeded the idea.In The Art of Dramatic Writing, Lajos Egri, perhaps apocryphally, describes the statue as originally having a pair of folded hands.

[8] Finally in 1898, Rodin presented a plaster study of the Balzac statue in the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.