Why did Auguste Rodin use assistants in his workshops?

Auguste Rodin employed a large number of assistants in his workshops primarily to manage the high volume of work and the physical demands of his later career. As his international fame grew, particularly after 1900, he received an abundance of commissions that required a more industrial approach to production.1

In this phase, Rodin functioned less as a traditional sculptor and more as an entrepreneur of sculpture. He personally focused on executing the initial models, searching for the forms that suited his vision, while delegating the time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks to others. Specifically, he assigned the hewing of marble and the casting of bronze to specialists and assistants, who worked under his direction. By delegating these stages, he was able to maintain his output despite the sheer physical labor involved in his large-scale projects.12