The figure of Balzac as a man of great physical appetites and strength is Rodin's second conception of the figure. Balzac stands legs wide apart and arms crossed over his powerful girth. Between his legs is a sort of tree stump - an unnecessary support for the piece - which emphasizes the subject as rooted to the earth. Rodin's idea is that Balzac was a confident man who grew up on the land, a force of nature.

Rodin borrowed some of his motifs for this figure. The tree trunk, the anti-classical form, and heightened realism have affinities with the Greek Hellenistic sculpture Rodin knew from his study at the Louvre and in Rome. For a lesser artist these references might have led to a copy after the antique. Rodin's genius enabled him to fuse these features and his studies of a model into a powerful, modern figure.

In later versions of his Balzac Rodin turned away from the sheer physicality of his subject.