Rodin and Shaw

Auguste Rodin, the great French sculptor sculpted a portrait of George Bernard Shaw in 1906 (cast in 1926). We have read about Shaw's account of sitting for his portrait. But who was he?

V. V. from class 8/b has done some research and found the following facts about Shaw:

        

           Rodin and Shaw

George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and co-founder of the London School of Economics. His first paying writing was music and literary criticism. He was also an essayist, novelist and a short story writer. His main talent was for drama, he wrote more than 60 plays. His writings are about prevailing social problems - issues of education, marriage, religion, government, health care and class privilege - with comedy. Shaw wrote many speeches for the Fabian Society. For a short time  he was active in local politics in the London County Council.

In 1898 he married Charlotte Payne -Townshend, a fellow Fabian. They settled in Ayot St Lawrence, in a house now called Shaw's Corner. He died there, aged 94, from chronic problems from injuries because he fell from a ladder.

He is the only person to have been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature (1925) and an Oscar (1938), for his contributions to literature and for his work on the film Pygmalion (adaptation of his play of the same name), respectively. Shaw wanted to refuse his Nobel Prize because he had no desire for public honours. He did reject the monetary award and he asked to use it to finance translation of fellow playwright August Strindberg's works from Swedish to English.

(Pictures from https://www.rodinmuseum.org)

 

 

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