The Musée Rodin () of

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

that was opened in 1919, primarily dedicated to the works of the French sculptor

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

. It has two sites: the Hôtel Biron and surrounding grounds in central Paris, as well as just outside Paris at Rodin's old home, the Villa des Brillants at

Meudon Meudon () is a French Communes of France, commune located in the Hauts-de-Seine Departments of France, department in the Île-de-France Regions of France, region, on the left bank of the Seine. It is located from the Kilometre Zero, center of P ...

Hauts-de-Seine Hauts-de-Seine (; ) is a department in the Île-de-France region of France. It covers Paris's western inner suburbs. It is bordered by Paris, Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne to the east, Val-d'Oise to the north, Yvelines to the west and ...

. The collection includes 6,600

sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

s, 8,000

drawing Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...

s, 8,000 old

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

s and 7,000

objets d'art In art history, the French term objet d'art (; ) describes an ornamental work of art, and the term objets d’art describes a range of works of art, usually small and three-dimensional, made of high-quality materials, and a finely-rendered finish ...

. The museum receives 700,000 visitors annually. While living in the Villa des Brillants, Rodin used the Hôtel Biron as his workshop from 1908, and subsequently donated his entire collection of sculptures – along with paintings by

Vincent van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artworks ...

Claude Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

and

Pierre-Auguste Renoir Pierre-Auguste Renoir (; ; 25 February 1841 – 3 December 1919) was a French people, French artist who was a leading painter in the development of the Impressionism, Impressionist style. As a celebrator of beauty and especially femininity, fe ...

that he had acquired – to the French State on the condition that they turn the buildings into a museum dedicated to his works. The Musée Rodin contains most of Rodin's significant creations, including ''

The Thinker ''The Thinker'' (), by Auguste Rodin, is a bronze sculpture depicting a Heroic nudity, nude male figure of heroic size, seated on a large rock, leaning forward, right elbow placed upon the left thigh, back of the right hand supporting the chin ...

'', '' The Kiss'' and ''

The Gates of Hell ''The Gates of Hell'' () is a monumental bronze sculptural group work by French artist Auguste Rodin that depicts a scene from the '' Inferno'', the first section of Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''. It stands at 6 metres high, 4&nb ...

''. Many of his sculptures are displayed in the museum's extensive

garden A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate bot ...

. The museum includes a room dedicated to the works of

Camille Claudel Camille Rosalie Claudel (; 8 December 1864 19 October 1943) was a French sculptor known for her figurative works in bronze and marble. She died in relative obscurity, but later gained recognition for the originality and quality of her work. The ...

and one of the two castings of '' The Mature Age''. The gardens around the museum building contain many of the famous sculptures in natural settings. Behind the museum building are a small lake and casual restaurant. Additionally, the nearby Métro stop, Varenne, features some of Rodin's sculptures on the platform. The building is served by Métro ( Line 13), RER ( Line C: Invalides) and bus (69, 82, 87, 92).

Permanent collections

Sculptures

Rodin's sculptures are the work of an artist who chose to defy the norms of his time. Among the works of his youth, ''Man with a Broken Nose'' appears out of step with contemporary aesthetic norms, while ''

The Age of Bronze ''The Age of Bronze'' () is a bronze statue by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). The figure is of a life-size nude male, 72 in. (182.9 cm) high. Rodin continued to produce casts of the statue for several decades after ...

'' rejects contemporary mechanisms of physical expression. This absence of artifice, like the nudity of ''

'' or ''Adam and Eve'' guarantees the timelessness of Rodin's works. The artist also stands out by the monumental aspect of some of his works: ''Balzac'', '' The Burghers of Calais'' or the impressive, unfinished ''

,'' which contains many elements representing the major works of Rodin (''The Thinker, Ugolino, The Kiss'' or ''the Three Shades'').

Drawings

The graphic collection at the Musée Rodin contains around 7,000 drawings. They can be associated with different styles and periods: observation of landscapes, fantasy works inspired by

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet, essayist, translator and art critic. His poems are described as exhibiting mastery of rhythm and rhyme, containing an exoticism inherited from the Romantics, an ...

, numerous erotic nudes or even portraits.

Photography

The Musée Rodin preserves an important collection of 25,000 photographs. Among these, 7,000 were collected by Rodin himself. The artist showed indeed a great interest for this science and art, and he has collaborated with many photographers, such as Eugène Druet, Jacques-Ernest Bulloz,

Adolphe Braun Jean Adolphe Braun (13 June 1812 – 31 December 1877)John Hannavy, Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography', Vol. 1 (Routledge, 2007), pp. 204–205. was a French photographer, best known for his floral still lifes, Parisian street scenes ...

Edward Steichen Edward Jean Steichen (; March 27, 1879 – March 25, 1973) was a Luxembourgish American photographer, painter and curator and a pioneer of fashion photography. His gown images for the magazine ''Art et Décoration'' in 1911 were the first modern ...

. Subjects and themes are varied, Rodin's personal albums attest to his centres of interest and artistic sources, while the portraits and newspaper photographs illustrate his work and his life. Above all, these photographs are a great source to learn what happened in the studio between 1877 and Rodin's death, in 1917.

Camille Claudel room

The Camille Claudel room contains such Claudel works as the 1913 casting of '' The Mature Age'' (1898), ''The Wave'' (1897), '' The Waltz'', ''Sakountala'' (1905), and an 1892 casting of '' Bust of Rodin'' (1888–89). Claudel, a student and model for Rodin, and soon his collaborator, associate, and lover, worked with Rodin from 1884 until the early 1890s. They kept in close contact until 1899.

Rodin as a collector

During the twenty last years of his life, as he was living in Meudon, Rodin started a collection of ancient works of art from Egypt, Greece and Rome, then later from the Far East. As the collection was growing, the different pieces invaded the studio and his house, replacing the casts after Antique statues. As Rodin's fame grew, the commissions he received enabled him to continue his collection, reaching over 6.000 works in 1917. In addition, Rodin's friendships and tastes led him to surrounding himself with works by the Naturalists ( Théodule Ribot, Alfred Roll) and Symbolists (

Eugène Carrière Eugène Anatole Carrière (; 16 January 1849 – 27 March 1906) was a French Symbolist artist of the fin-de-siècle period. Carrière's paintings are best known for their near-monochrome brown palette and their ethereal, dreamlike quality. ...

, Charles Cottet...). Through a series of exchanges made with his artists friends, Rodin owned works of art from Jules Dalou, Alexandre Falguière or Jean-Paul Laurens. He also realised important purchases: three

Van Gogh Vincent Willem van Gogh (; 30 March 185329 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created approximately 2,100 artwork ...

's (including '' Père Tanguy'', late 1887), Renoir's ''Nude in the Sunlight'' and Monet's ''Belle-Île''.

Temporary exhibitions

Temporary exhibitions dedicated to Rodin

* ''La sculpture dans l’espace, Rodin, Brâncuși, Giacometti'' (November 2005–February 2006): visitors * ''Rodin et les danseuses cambodgiennes, sa dernière passion'' (June 2006–September 2006): visitors * ''Rodin, les figures d’Eros'' (November 2006–March 2007): visitors * ''Camille Claudel, une femme, une artiste'' (April 2008–July 2008): visitors * ''La Passion à l’œuvre, Rodin et Freud, collectionneurs'' (October 2008–February 2009) * ''Corps et décors. Rodin et les arts décoratifs'' (April 2010–August 2010) * ''Rodin. Laboratoire de la création'' (November 2014–September 2015)

Contemporary art exhibitions

Recently, contemporary art exhibitions are also organized, as it was done as early as 1949 when the first Salon de la jeune sculpture took place at the Musée Rodin. Artists such as

Anthony Caro Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' and industrial objects. He began as a member of the modernist school, having worked with ...

, Eugène Dodeigne, Étienne Bossut exhibited at the museum.

Bill Viola William John Viola Jr. ( , ; January 25, 1951 – July 12, 2024) was an American video artist whose artistic expression depended upon electronic, sound, and image technology in new media. His works focus on the ideas behind fundamental human ...

, Adel Abdessemed and Mircea Cantor have been invited to screen videos in the park for the « Nuit des musées ». In 2010, artworks by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye were exhibited, as well as a program of video-performances by artists such as

Vito Acconci Vito Acconci (, ; January 24, 1940 – April 27, 2017) was an American performance art, performance, video and installation artist, whose diverse practice eventually included sculpture, architectural design, and landscape design. His performan ...

, Sanja Iveković,

Marina Abramović Marina Abramović ( sr-Cyrl, Марина Абрамовић, ; born November 30, 1946) is a Serbian conceptual and performance artist. Her work explores body art, endurance art, the relationship between the performer and audience, the limit ...

and

Mona Hatoum Mona Hatoum (; born 1952) is a Palestinians, British-Palestinian multimedia and installation artist who lives in London. Biography Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon, to State of Palestine, Palestinian parents. Although born in Leba ...

. A

Henry Moore Henry Spencer Moore (30 July 1898 – 31 August 1986) was an English artist. He is best known for his semi-abstract art, abstract monumental Bronze sculpture, bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art. Moore ...

exhibition, dedicated to his studio and small sculptures, ran there from October 2010 to February 2011.

Museum locations

Hôtel Biron, Paris

First opened to the public on 4 August 1919, the Musée Rodin was housed in a mansion, formerly called the Hôtel Peyrenc de Moras, designed with the lines of classical architecture and ornamented with rocaille decoration. It was built in the Rue de Varenne, between 1727 and 1732. From 1788, the Hôtel was occupied by a series of owners and tenants. In 1820, the Duchess of Charost sold the entire property to three nuns belonging to a religious congregation, the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. A boarding school for girls was opened and the decorations were progressively sold. Between 1820 and 1904, several buildings were constructed on the estate, the Chapel in particular, designed by the architect Jean Juste Gustave Lisch and achieved in 1876. The Society was dissolved in 1904 due to the 'religious orders' law involving the separation of church and state which prohibited religious orders from teaching. The sisters were evicted and the estate was put up for sale. Awaiting a buyer, tenants were allowed to occupy the building; among them were

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau ( , ; ; 5 July 1889 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, film director, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost avant-garde artists of the 20th-c ...

Henri Matisse Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual arts, visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, ...

Isadora Duncan Angela Isadora Duncan (May 26, 1877, or May 27, 1878 – September 14, 1927) was an American-born dancer and choreographer, who was a pioneer of modern contemporary dance and performed to great acclaim throughout Europe and the United States. Bor ...

and

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...

, whose future wife Clara Westhoff was living in the Hôtel and was the first to tell Rodin about the estate. In 1908, the sculptor rented four ground-floor rooms to use as his studios. From 1911 onwards, he occupied the whole building. In 1911, as the French state had committed itself to purchasing the Hôtel Biron, Rodin started to negotiate with it. The artist announced officially his intention to donate all his works to the French state, as well as his drawings and his collection of antiquities in the condition that the State keeps all these collections at the Hôtel Biron, which will become the Musée Rodin in exchange of the right to reside there all his life. In 1916, the French Assembly passed a law permitting the State to accept the donations and allocated the mansion and its garden to a museum. Léonce Bénédite was appointed executor of the sculptor's will: his tasks were to manage Rodin's artistic heritage and to supervise the organisation of the future museum. Listed as a historical monument in 1926, the Hôtel Biron and its grounds have since undergone major renovation and restoration work, to better assert their role as a museum. The most recent scheme was the restoration which began in 2012 and was completed by 12 November 2015, Rodin's 175th birthday. The renovations cost 16 million euro ($17.4 million), and were hailed as a "moral duty" by France's Culture Minister Fleur Pellerin.

Musée Rodin in Meudon

On 19 December 1895, Rodin purchased a Louis XIII-style house in brick and stone, built on the heights of

and called "La Villa des Brillants". In 1900, almost 50 people, including sculptor's assistants, workers and casters, were employed there by Rodin and, although he continued to go to his Paris studios daily, his major creative work was done in Meudon. The place became soon a major place of attraction for friends, admirers or celebrities from France or abroad. It is also in Meudon that Rodin and his wife, Rose Beuret, have chosen to be buried. After the death of Rodin, the villa and the studio also became a museum, open three days per week. Visitors can discover the atmosphere of the studio and the place where Rodin liked to live and work. Inaugurated in 1948, the museum also permits to glimpse numerous plasters, including casts for Rodin's monumental works, such as the ''Burghers of Calais'' and the ''Gates of Hell'' which allow to discover the different steps of the creative process.

Gallery of sculptures

File:Le Penseur in the Jardin du Musée Rodin, Paris 14 June 2015.jpg, ''

'' (1904) in the garden of the museum File:L'Homme au nez cassé (1864) by Rodin, marble 1.jpg, ''The Man with the Broken Nose'' (plaster, 1864) File:Auguste Rodin, The three shades (Les Trois Ombres), for the top of The Gates of Hell, before 1886, plaster.jpg, '' The Three Shades'' (before 1886), plaster original for ''

'' File:Le Cri dAuguste Rodin (musée Rodin) (6215583946).jpg, ''The Cry'' (1886) File:Burgcalaisw.jpg, '' The Burghers of Calais'' (1889) File:2018 Balzac (1898) close-up.jpg, '' Monument to Balzac'' (detail, 1898) File:Mains d'amants by Auguste Rodin, Musée Rodin, Paris 2007.jpg, ''Lovers' Hands'' (1909) File:Rodin Garden.JPG, The museum garden

References

Notes Bibliography * Chevillot, Catherine; Marraud, Hélène; and Pinet, Hélène (2014) ''Rodin: The Laboratory of Creation''. Translated by John Adamson. Dijon: Éditions Faton.

External links

Musée Rodin

Society of Friends of the musée Rodin
association participating to the influence and enrichment of the musée Rodin's collections

Over 160 photos taken in the museum

Radio France Internationale - Matisse and Rodin exhibitionPhotos taken in Hotel BironGallery near Musée Rodin
*
Rodin: The B. Gerald Cantor Collection
', a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a good resource for more material on Rodin {{DEFAULTSORT:Musee Rodin

Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

Auguste Rodin museums

Buildings and structures in the 7th arrondissement of Paris Sculpture galleries in France

1919 establishments in France Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in France