Musee Rodin
Musee Rodin
a beautiful oasis
MUSÉE RODIN PARIS
The Musée Rodin is all about one person and one person only – Rodin. His sculptures may be the main attraction, but his drawings, sketches and ceramics are well worth a look too. You won’t want to miss out on the grounds either. The seven-acre garden showcases Rodin’s work in a stunning natural setting.
My Rating:
The positives:
Where better to marvel at Rodin’s masterpieces than in the very place he lived and worked? You can head out to the garden for a leisurely stroll and spot even more of his sculptures dotted between the trees and hedges.
The negatives:
There’s not a lot to the audio guide. It often cuts off abruptly and leaves you wondering if there’s more to come. Having said that, the information provided is interesting, so it’s still worth a listen.
Tip:
Short on time? Not ready for the full-on museum experience? You can always just buy a standalone ticket for the garden (Tickets only on-site).
Last Modified: 18.01.2024 | Céline & Anne
Musée Rodin
Tickets
The details
at a glance
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Sunday, 10.00 a.m. – 6.30 p.m.
Monday closed
Last ticket sale at 5.30 p.m.
Public holidays:
Closed January 1st, May 1st and December 25th
On December 24th and 31st the museum closes at 4.45 p.m.
Last entry at 4:15 p.m.
Prices
EUR 13 for adults (online EUR 14 on the official site)
free entry for children under 18 and EU citizens aged 18-25
Prices
EUR 13 for adults (online EUR 14 on the official site)
free entry for children under 18 and EU citizens aged 18-25
Prices
EUR 13 for adults (online EUR 14 on the official site)
free entry for children under 18 and EU citizens aged 18-25
EUR 9 for non-EU citizens aged between 18 and 25
free admission on the 1st Sunday of the month from October 1st to March 31st
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Paris Museum Pass
The Paris Museums Pass is available for 2, 4 or 6 days.
-> More about the Paris Museums Pass
Musée Rodin
Photo Gallery
What is there
to see?
The museum’s collection is housed in a beautiful old Parisian mansion that was built by the architect to the king. And the garden is enough to take your breath away. The setting will get you wishing you could win the lottery, that much is for sure. But don’t get too distracted from the main event – Rodin’s masterpieces. The sculptor actually lived and worked in the mansion for a number of years. In the end, he was granted the right to stay in the building owned by the French government because he bequeathed his works of art to the state on the understanding that they would be displayed in the building after his death.
And that’s why the museum is all about Rodin and Rodin alone to this day. His sculptures may be the main attraction, but his drawings, sketches and ceramics are well worth a look too.
His most famous sculptures on display here are ‘The Thinker’, ‘The Kiss’, ‘Danaïd’, the first bronze casting of ‘The Gates of Hell’, ‘The Age of Bronze’ and ‘The Three Shades’. This broad spectrum of works offers us a nice little insight into how Rodin evolved as a sculptor. Rodin’s early work was very much guided by society’s expectations, but his tendency to leave things seemingly unfinished soon shone through. And sculptures like the two right hands of ‘The Cathedral’ capture his special use of allegories.
A trip to this museum leaves no doubt that Rodin was a talented painter too.
Rodin was also quite the collector and the Musée Rodin houses his collection featuring paintings by his friends, naturalist painters like Jules Bastien-Lepage and symbolist artists like Eugène Carrière. Works by bigger names in the art world also appear in Rodin’s collection, including three paintings by Van Gogh as well as a Renoir and a Monet.
Make sure you leave plenty of time to explore the grounds. The seven-acre garden showcases Rodin’s work in a stunning natural setting. Be sure to stop and smell the roses in the rose garden. And don’t forget to admire the view of the building and gorgeous green lawn from the fountain starring one of Rodin’s sculptures.
A bit of history
find out more
THE THINKER
find out more
THE GATES OF HELL
find out more
THE KISS
find out more
Musée Rodin
A bit of history
The Rodin Museum officially opened its doors in 1919.
It is located in Hôtel Biron, officially known as Hôtel Peyrenc de Moras in honour of Abraham Peyrenc de Moras, the rich financier who commissioned the mansion, from 1732. The building is a splendid example of the rococo style. And yet it was never designed to be a hotel in the modern sense of the word. Its name actually came from the French hôtel particulier, used to mean a mansion or townhouse reserved for well-to-do nobles, clergymen or public officials. Commoners, meanwhile, would have lived in maisons particulières.
In 1753, the widow of Peyrenc de Moras sold the mansion to Louis-Antoine de Gontaut-Biron (1700–1788), who gave the place the name that stuck. Biron had a great deal of respect for the building and the grounds, which meant he made very few changes. He did, however, double the size of the garden, introducing the fountain and a jardin anglais.
After his death in 1788, the mansion changed hands several times. Between 1806 and 1810, it was even leased to the Holy See as a residence for an ambassador from the Vatican. In 1810, a Russian Emperor moved in.
The property was then bought by three nuns in 1820 and converted into a school for girls, which involved a great deal of renovation work. Unfortunately, the decorative elements, woodwork, wrought iron and other original features were removed at this point and sold to wealthy connoisseurs. At the end of the 19th century, the garden was even used for growing vegetables and grazing. It was here that the nuns founded the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which was dissolved almost a century later in 1904.
After that point, the mansion welcomed a string of tenants, including a number of artists, such as the painter Henri Matisse (1869–1954) and sculptor Clara Westhoff (1878–1954), and the wife of the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who was once Rodin’s private secretary and told our sculptor about the property in the first place. The sculptor went on to rent four rooms in Hôtel Biron in 1908, when he moved his studio and part of his antique collection to the mansion. By 1911, he was occupying the entire building and the Musée Rodin opened its doors in 1919. Unfortunately, Rodin never saw the transformation, as he had died in 1917.
RODINS SKULPTURs
The Thinker (1903)
Bronze
Height 180 cm
Width 98 cm
Depth 145 cm
‘The Thinker’ is one of Rodin’s most famous sculptures. It’s no wonder, then, that there are over 20 replicas to be found all around the world.
Two of them are right here at the Musée Rodin – one full-sized casting and one monumental bronze casting. The photo here is of the monumental bronze version out in the garden.
Conceived by Rodin in 1880 to top ‘The Gates of Hell’, the original sculpture measured around 70 cm. Still called ‘The Poet’ at the time, it was supposed to represent Dante, the author of the ‘Divine Comedy’ that had inspired ‘The Gates of Hell’ in the first place. The idea was to depict the poet as a free-thinking man in spite of his tortured body and damned soul.
Although he remained part of ‘The Gates of Hell’, this poet proved popular in his own right. The sculpture was exhibited individually for the first time in 1888 and became an independent work known as ‘The Thinker’. When Rodin enlarged his figure in 1902, the sculpture became even more popular. It’s now considered to be one of the most famous sculptures of its era.
The original sculpture –standing at 72 cm tall – can still be found at the Musée Rodin. It was modelled on Jean Baud, an extremely muscular French boxing champion and wrestler.
Other full-sized versions in bronze or plaster can be found at the Vatican Museums in Rome and the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin. The one that used to stand in the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York somehow managed to survive the September 11 attacks.
You can spot ‘The Thinker’ in paintings (Edvard Munch), films (Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Great Dictator’, ‘Night at the Museum’, ‘Midnight in Paris’) and music videos (Ariana Grande’s ‘God Is a Woman’).
Auguste Rodin
THE GATES OF HELL (1880–1890)
Rodin spent years and years of his life working on ‘The Gates of Hell’. The project was commissioned by the French government for the Decorative Arts Museum. Rodin created over 200 figures and groups for it. He had hoped to reveal the gates at the Exposition Universelle in 1889, but struggled to finish on time. He ended up abandoning the project altogether in 1890. Or did he?
In 1900, the unfinished gates were featured in an exhibition. Since Rodin had given up on adding all the figures to his sculpture, he presented them separately. Like the “Thinker” or “The kiss”, for example.
It wasn’t until 1917 that Léonce Bénédite, the first curator of the Musée Rodin, managed to convince the sculptor to have his masterpiece reconstructed so that it could be cast in bronze. But Rodin died before he could see the fruits of all those years of labour. The bronze casting was completed in 1926.
With Rodin having worked on ‘The Gates of Hell’ for 37 years on and off, we can call this particular sculpture his life’s work.
Love and death
THE KISS (1882)
‘The Kiss’ stars two characters from Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ – Paolo and Francesca. The pair had fallen in love, but were caught kissing by Francesca’s husband. After they were killed, they were condemned to wander eternally through the underworld.
Although Rodin had originally earmarked the couple for ‘The Gates of Hell’, he ultimately decided that their sensuality was incongruous with his other work. And so ‘The Kiss’ became a sculpture in its own right. When it was first exhibited in 1887, it was a huge success. There was no explicit reference to Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy’ and its title – ‘The Kiss’ – left plenty of room for fresh interpretations.
The figures were sculpted out of one big block of marble. You may still be able to see some of the rough broken edges, but the bodies are smooth and shaped to perfection.
No end of versions of the sculpture were commissioned in all different sizes. Everyone wanted one of their own! A full-sized replica was ordered for the Exposition Universelle in 1900 and famous art museums requested their own copies too. An iconic work representing love, ‘The Kiss’ is a timeless sculpture that boldly portrays the physical side of the relationship between a man and a woman.
Rodin defied the conventions and beliefs of his time with this openly sensual and naturalistic sculpture.
Official website of the Rodin Museum (EN): www.musee-rodin.fr
Text and image rights: © Céline Mülich, 2019 – 2024
