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The Rodin Museum is an
The museum was a gift of movie-theatre magnate Jules Mastbaum (1872–1926) to the city of Philadelphia. Mastbaum began collecting works by Rodin in 1923 with the intent of founding a museum. Within three years, he assembled the largest collection of Rodin's works outside Paris, including bronze castings, plaster studies, drawings, prints, letters, and books.
In 1926, Mastbaum commissioned French architects Paul Cret and
Image:The Burghers of Calais Philadelphia.jpg, '' Burghers of Calais''
Image:The Gates of Hell Philadelphia.jpg, ''
Listing
at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings {{Authority control (arts) 1929 establishments in Pennsylvania Art museums and galleries established in 1929 Art museums and galleries in Philadelphia Auguste Rodin museums Benjamin Franklin Parkway Paul Philippe Cret buildings Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia Register of Historic Places Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in the United States Spring Garden, Philadelphia
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 ...
located in Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania, officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a U.S. state, state spanning the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern United States, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes region, Great Lakes regions o ...
that contains one of the largest collections of 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 ...
's works outside 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 ...
. Opened in 1929, the museum is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
. The museum houses a collection of nearly 150 objects containing bronzes, marbles, and plasters by Rodin.
In 2012, the museum re-opened after a three-year, $9 million renovation that brought the museum back to its original vision of displaying Rodin's works.
History
The museum was a gift of movie-theatre magnate Jules Mastbaum (1872–1926) to the city of Philadelphia. Mastbaum began collecting works by Rodin in 1923 with the intent of founding a museum. Within three years, he assembled the largest collection of Rodin's works outside Paris, including bronze castings, plaster studies, drawings, prints, letters, and books.
In 1926, Mastbaum commissioned French architects Paul Cret and Jacques Gréber
Jacques-Henri-Auguste Gréber (10 September 1882 – 5 June 1962) was a French architect specializing in landscape architecture and urban design. He was a strong proponent of the Beaux-Arts style and a contributor to the City Beautiful movement ...
to design the museum building and gardens. He died before the museum was complete, but his widow, Etta Wedell Mastbaum honored his commitment and the Museum opened on November 29, 1929. Murals in the museum were executed by the painter Franklin C. Watkins.
Collection
The best-known of Rodin's works, ''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 ...
'' (1880–1882), sits outside the museum in the entry courtyard. Visitors once entered through a cast of ''The Gates of Hell'', located at the main entrance to the museum, which is no longer used. This massive 5.5-m-tall bronze doorway was originally created for the Museum of Decorative Arts (which was to have been located in Paris but never came into existence). Rodin sculpted more than 100 figures for these doors from 1880 until his death in 1917. This casting is one of the three originals; several others have been made since. Several of his most famous works, including ''The Thinker'', are actually studies for these doors which were later expanded into separate works.
The museum's several rooms house many more of the artist's works, including '' The Kiss'' (1886), '' Eternal Springtime'' (1884), ''The Age of Bronze'' (1875–76), and '' The Burghers of Calais'', a monument commissioned by the City of Calais
Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...
in 1884.
In 2019, the Rodin museum mounted a two-year special exhibition titled ''Rethinking the Modern Monument,'' curated by Alexander Kauffman, which paired 16 works from the Philadelphia Museum of Art with selected Rodin sculptures. The special exhibition featured bronze sculptures by Jean Arp, Barbara Hepworth, Jacques Lipchitz, Marino Marini, Chana Orloff, and Alberto Giacometti, among others.
Image gallery
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 ...
''
Image:Colossal Head of Balzac.jpg, ''The Colossal Head of Balzac''
Image:Bacchus in the Vat.JPG, ''Bacchus in the Vat''
See also
*Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Benjamin Franklin Parkway, commonly abbreviated to Ben Franklin Parkway and colloquially called the Parkway, is a boulevard that runs through the cultural heart of Philadelphia, the nation's sixth-largest city as of 2020.
The parkway is named ...
* List of single-artist museums
This is a list of single-artist museum, single–artist museums, which are museums displaying the work, or bearing the name, of a single visual artist.
See also
* :Museums devoted to one artist
* List of art museums
* List of most visited art mu ...
References
External links
*Listing
at Philadelphia Architects and Buildings {{Authority control (arts) 1929 establishments in Pennsylvania Art museums and galleries established in 1929 Art museums and galleries in Philadelphia Auguste Rodin museums Benjamin Franklin Parkway Paul Philippe Cret buildings Philadelphia Museum of Art Philadelphia Register of Historic Places Sculpture gardens, trails and parks in the United States Spring Garden, Philadelphia