The Rodin Museum

Referring to the previous post, the surgery has been done; I feel fine… Sincere thanks to all of you for your kind messages!! As you may guess, I have to avoid too much walking around Paris for a while, but I have some photos in advance.

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) has his own museum in Paris, one of the most visited ones. The museum is very nicely situated, close to the Invalides. It’s a big mansion house or a small castle, called Hôtel Biron, surrounded by a beautiful garden, originally built for an 18th century wig-maker who had made a fortune. It was later taken over by different noble personalities and was for a while the home of the Papal legate, later the Russian ambassador, before becoming a convent during the 19th century. It was confiscated when the Church and the State separated in 1905 and was supposed to be demolished. In the meantime it was opened to different artists like Jean Cocteau, Henri Matisse, Isadora Duncan who had a dancing school here, Rainer Maria Rilke … and Auguste Rodin who occupied a large part of it the last nine years of his life - although his real home was elsewhere (Meudon in the outskirts of Paris).

Rodin, 68 when he moved in, was then already a famous and rich person, after a tough start in life. He then negotiated with the French State to take over his works and whatever he had collected on condition that the building and the garden would be transformed to a museum in his name. The museum was opened in 1919, two years after his death.

Rodin spent much time and energy on decorating the building and especially the garden, both full of his own works, but he also collected art, including paintings by Monet, van Gogh, Renoir, Munch… still visible here.

Difficult light conditions, a lot of people around… complicated my picture taking and I clearly feel that I cannot not show the Rodin sculptures to their full value. (I had to borrow “The Kiss”-picture from Google.) You have to go there!

Rodin started to work on a portal (for a Decorative Arts Museum that never opened) from when he was 40 and to the end of his life, 37 year later. It’s called “The Gates of Hell” and can be seen in the garden. Many of Rodin’s best known sculptures, including the famous “The Thinker” started as designs for this portal.

The Rodin museum normally also exhibits the fantastic works of Camille Claudel, with whom Rodin had a passionate relationship for some fifteen years. When I visited the museum recently her works were in Spain for a temporary exhibition.