Musée Rodin

From Mansion to Convent to Museum: 200 Years of the Musée Rodin

The site where the Musée Rodin now stands was originally a private mansion built in the 18th century. France was going t…

Three Rejections Made Him: The Turbulent Life of Auguste Rodin

Rodin was born on November 12, 1840, in Paris. His father worked as a civil servant, so while the family wasn't wealthy,…

A Body with No Head: How Rodin Assembled His Sculptures

The sculpture in front of you is a study Rodin made while working toward Pierre de Wissant, one of the figures in The Bu…

Room 1: Traces of Rodin the Student

You've just entered Room 1. It holds sculptures and drawings Rodin made during his student days at art school. More on t…

Why a 20-Year-Old Rodin Carved His Father Like an Ancient Roman

This bust depicts Rodin's father, Jean-Baptiste, and dates to around 1860, when Rodin was just twenty — one of the earli…

Too Real to Win: The Man with the Broken Nose

The Man with the Broken Nose was Rodin's first submission to the Salon, and alongside the bust of his father, it's consi…

Room 2: Sculpting Just to Get By, After the Rejections

You've just entered Room 2. On display here are pieces Rodin made after failing to get into the École des Beaux-Arts, du…

Division of Labor, Learned in a Workshop: The Venus Series

These pieces, known collectively as the Venus Series, were made by Rodin in clay in 1871. After failing three times to g…

Giants Bearing the Weight of the Earth: Rodin's Titans

This vase is called the Titan's Pedestal. The vase itself was made by Carrier-Belleuse, but the male figures decorating…

Room 3: Home to His Debut Work, The Age of Bronze

You've just entered Room 3. On display here is Rodin's first sculpture, The Age of Bronze, along with other early works…

Accused of Being Cast from a Living Body: The Age of Bronze

The Age of Bronze was made right after Rodin returned from his trip to Italy. Seeing the sculptures of Renaissance maste…

Stripped of Every Symbol: Rodin's Saint John the Baptist

Travel through Europe long enough and you'll run into countless depictions of Saint John the Baptist. He's usually shown…

Rejected by the Jury, Later a Monument at Verdun: Call to Arms

Call to Arms was Rodin's entry for a competition to design monuments to the Republic and to the defense of Paris. For an…

A Love That Crossed a 24-Year Gap: Camille Claudel's Busts

The sculptures displayed in this room are busts Rodin made with Camille Claudel as his model. Claudel was the woman Rodi…

Room 5: Where The Kiss, Cut from The Gates of Hell, Now Stands

You've just entered Room 5. This room holds sculptures that were part of Rodin's masterpiece The Gates of Hell — the det…

Too Beautiful for Hell: The Kiss

The Kiss is one of Rodin's signature works, portraying two figures from Dante's Divine Comedy: Paolo and Francesca. Fran…

Room 6: Studies for The Burghers of Calais

You've just entered Room 6. Gathered here are sculptures Rodin made as studies while working toward The Burghers of Cala…

He Practiced the Hands and Faces First: The Burghers of Calais Study Case

Inside this glass case is a collection of studies Rodin made in preparation for The Burghers of Calais. He worked out th…

Collapsed Before a Jar That Can Never Be Filled: Danaid

Danaid is a figure from Greek mythology. On her father's orders, she killed her husband on their wedding night, and for…

Refusing to Hide Old Age: She Who Was the Helmet-Maker's Beautiful Wife

She Who Was the Helmet-Maker's Beautiful Wife draws its inspiration from a poem by François Villon. In it, an aging woma…

He Said He'd Fix It, and Never Did: The Dried-Up Spring

The Dried-Up Spring combines two casts of She Who Was the Helmet-Maker's Beautiful Wife, positioned facing one another w…

The Hand of God, or the Hand of the Sculptor? The Unexhibited Hand of God

This sculpture is Rodin's Creation, better known as The Hand of God. A single hand emerges from a block of marble, shapi…

Room 9: Where Victor Hugo and Balzac Await

You've just entered Room 9. On display here are Rodin's sculptures of the great French writers Victor Hugo and Balzac. M…

Sketched in Secret Over Dinner: The Bust of Victor Hugo

This sculpture is a bust of Victor Hugo. In 1883, Rodin — still an unknown artist at the time — was introduced to Hugo t…

The Victor Hugo Monument That Never Made It into the Pantheon

This sculpture is Rodin's model for a monument to Victor Hugo. Four years after Hugo's death, Rodin was commissioned to…

Cast from the Tailor's Own Robe: The Secret Behind the Balzac Sculpture

In 1891, Rodin was commissioned by the French Society of Men of Letters to create a sculpture of Balzac. Rodin, who admi…

Room 10: Paintings by His Friend Eugène Carrière

You've just entered Room 10. Here you'll find paintings by Eugène Carrière, a longtime friend of Rodin's. More in the ne…

They Exchanged Paintings as Friends: Rodin and the Painter Eugène Carrière

The paintings hanging on this wall were made by the painter Eugène Carrière. Rodin and Carrière were close friends who d…

A Sister Instead of a Brother: Icarus's Sister, Illusion

Icarus is a figure from Greek mythology who, after being imprisoned in a labyrinth, escaped using wings built by his fat…

Two Hands Forming a Gothic Cathedral: The Cathedral

This work carries the title The Cathedral. Made of nothing but two clasped hands, it was originally called The Arch of A…

Room 12: Paintings Rodin Collected Over a Lifetime

You've just entered Room 12. Displayed here is a selection of the paintings Rodin collected during his lifetime. Altoget…

A Portrait of Gratitude for the Paint-Shop Owner: Van Gogh's Père Tanguy

This painting is Vincent van Gogh's Père Tanguy. The man seated at the center of the canvas is Père Tanguy, a notable fi…

A Sculpture for a Painting: Rodin, Monet, and Belle-Île

This painting is Monet's Belle-Île. Exactly when Rodin and Monet became friends isn't entirely clear, but it was most li…

Room 13: Remnants of the Pavillon de l'Alma Exhibition

You've just entered Room 13. On display here are pieces that were once shown at the Pavillon de l'Alma, during the heigh…

Room 8: Rodin's Living Room, Styled Like a Private Museum

You've just entered Room 8. This room has been restored to look as it did when Rodin lived in this building and used it…

All That's Left After a Monument Fell Through: The Head of Baudelaire

This piece is Rodin's sculpted head of the poet Baudelaire. Baudelaire was one of France's most celebrated poets, and hi…

Room 14: New Works Born from Combined Sculptures

You've just entered Room 14. One of Rodin's signature methods was reusing molds from sculptures he'd already made, combi…

A Mediocre Sculpture of a Remarkable Woman: The Bust of Anna de Noailles

This sculpture is a model for a bust of Anna de Noailles. The name may be unfamiliar outside France, but she was a tower…

Three Sculptures Merged into One: Two Eves and a Crouching Woman

By the 1890s, Rodin had begun combining sculptures he'd made for The Gates of Hell into entirely new works. This was pos…

From Stone to Flesh: Man and His Thought

Man and His Thought is a sculpture made for The Gates of Hell, composed of two figures. From the front you see only one,…

Nothing Went to Waste: Flowers in a Vase

Flowers in a Vase is a sculpture Rodin made by reusing and combining parts from earlier works. When sculpting a figure,…

Bronze, Yet One of Rodin's Latest: The Head of Iris

The Head of Iris traces its origins back to two of Rodin's major works, The Gates of Hell and the Monument to Victor Hug…

A Trace Left on Purpose: Torso of a Young Woman with Arched Back

Like many of Rodin's works, Torso of a Young Woman with Arched Back began as a piece intended for The Gates of Hell. Rod…

Room 16: The Overlooked Talent of Camille Claudel

You've just entered Room 16. On display here are works by Camille Claudel, Rodin's romantic partner. Because she fell in…

Inspired by Hokusai's Wave: Claudel's The Wave

The Wave is a piece by Camille Claudel, one of her rare sculptures on a subject unrelated to Rodin. In it, a massive wav…

Room 11: Portrait Commissions That Came with Fame

You've just entered Room 11. Once Rodin became famous, wealthy figures from France and around the world began commission…

Room 17: Rodin's Collection of Nearly 2,000 Ancient Artifacts

This is Room 17, home to the ancient artifacts Rodin collected over his lifetime. He's believed to have amassed as many…

Ten Years Apart, Now One: The Walking Man

The Walking Man has an interesting backstory. One day, Rodin came across a clay torso in his studio that he'd originally…

Over 6,000 Pieces: The Ancient Artifacts Rodin Collected in His Lifetime

This glass case holds ancient artifacts Rodin collected during his lifetime. Ancient art left a deep imprint on Rodin th…

Finding Completeness in Broken Hands: Rodin's Ancient Collection

What's gathered here is a selection of hand-shaped fragments from Rodin's collection, mounted together on the wall. You…

Room 18: Sculpting Dance and Acrobatics

You've just entered Room 18. Rodin sought to capture the body in motion — everything from dance movements to acrobatic f…

Recovering from the Balzac Backlash: Torso of a Nude Muse

In 1905, the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers in London commissioned Rodin, then its president,…

A Monument That Doesn't Depict Its Subject: The Whistler Monument

This sculpture is a monument honoring the painter James McNeill Whistler. In 1905, Rodin was commissioned to create a tr…

Humanity Lost to Starvation: Ugolino

This sculpture is Ugolino, a piece from The Gates of Hell that Rodin later recreated as an independent, large-scale work…

From The Gates of Hell to Victor Hugo's Side: Meditation

Like many of Rodin's other works, this piece also traces its origins back to The Gates of Hell. Among the sculptures he…

A Title Borrowed from Michelangelo: Genius of Eternal Repose

Genius of Eternal Repose is a sculpture Rodin made in honor of the painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes.

An Aging Body Shining with Wisdom: The Victor Hugo Monument

This sculpture is the monument to Victor Hugo. Four years after Hugo's death, in 1889, Rodin was commissioned to create…

450 Marble Works: Rodin's Astonishing Productivity

This is the marble gallery, home to around 40 of Rodin's marble works. During the years he used this building as his stu…

Unfinished to the End: The Unexhibited Ariadne

This sculpture is Ariadne. Originally made at a small scale, it caught the eye of a gentleman who had lost his wife when…

Left Unfinished Because His Model Was Pregnant: Eve

This sculpture is Eve, the first woman from the Bible. When designing The Gates of Hell, Rodin created two figures to fl…

Adam, Repeated Three Times: The Three Shades

The Three Shades takes the Adam figure from the left side of The Gates of Hell, which we've just seen, as its base, appl…

Authentic Casts Born After His Death: The Rodin Museum Garden

The garden of the Rodin Museum is well known for how beautifully it's maintained, though it wasn't always this way. It t…

On a Pedestal at the Retrospective: The Equestrian Statue of General Lynch

In 1900, Rodin held a major retrospective of roughly 200 works in a pavilion he built specifically for the occasion at t…

From the Hands of a Friend: Maillol's Standing Bather

This sculpture wasn't made by Rodin himself — it's the work of his friend, sculptor Aristide Maillol. The two artists ad…

Captured by a Sculptor Enchanted With Dance: Nijinsky

With its striking, dynamic pose — caught as if landing from a jump, or lifting a leg in preparation to leap — this sculp…