The first volume of the catalogue raisonné of the work of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) covers the period 1840-1886, treating his apprenticeship at the École impériale spéciale de dessin et de mathématiques, his collaboration with the sculptor Carrier-Belleuse, his first trip to Italy, the difficulties of his early career, and his first successes. The volume closes with an evocation of his meeting with Camille Claudel and the elaboration of his Portes de l'Enfer, both events announcing the decisive turn that Rodin's life, art and thinking were about to take.