Rodin Museum

The Rodin Museum is a museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania which contains the largest collection of sculptor Auguste Rodin's works outside Paris.

Overview

The best-known of Rodin's works, "The Thinker" (1880-1882), sits outside the museum in the entry courtyard. Though no longer used, visitors once entered through a cast of "The Gates of Hell", located at the entrance into the museum. This massive 5.5m-high 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 original casts; 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 "The Kiss" (1886), "Eternal Springtime" (1884), The Age of Bronze, and "The Burghers of Calais", a monument commissioned by the City of Calais in 1884.

The Museum was the gift of movie-theater 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 to enrich the lives of his fellow citizens. Within just three years, he had 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 to design the museum building and gardens. Unfortunately, the collector did not live to see his dream realized, but his widow honored his commitment to the city, and the Museum was inaugurated on November 29, 1929.

Image gallery

ee also

*Benjamin Franklin Parkway

External links

* [http://www.rodinmuseum.org Rodin Museum Official Site]
* [http://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/2008/07/gates-of-hell.html O.T.I.S. (Odd Things I've Seen): The Gates of Hell at the Rodin Museum]