During his lifetime, Auguste Rodin's name became synonymous with modern sculpture. It aslo became linked with sex. Rodin came to emphasize the importance of desire and the sexual as the markers of his individual perspective, using them to fuel his increasingly daring treatments of the nude. Bodily passion became the primary means through which he sought to make sculpture evocative, expressive, and universally appealing. The author examines these developments by focusing on two pivotal moments in Rodin's career: first, 1876, the year his work is catalyzed through an engagement with Michelangelo; and, second, 1900, the year of the one-person exhibition that catapulted him to international public notoriety.