Rodin Museum

NOTE: The Rodin Museum is undergoing renovations and will reopen in Summer 2012. The outside gardens, which have undergone extensive changes as part of a multi-year rejuvenation process, will remain open during the museum’s closure.

The Experience

The greatest hits of the famed 19th-century sculptor are all here – bronze casts of Eternal Springtime, The Gates of Hell, The Burghers of Calais, and, of course, The Thinker. Bold, energetic and emotionally intense, these works are set in a temple-like building down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which administers the collection.

All told, you’ll find more than 120 of the French master’s sculptures here, as well as a fascinating collection of drawings, paintings and studies. The variety of works on hand offers the perfect opportunity to contrast and compare the ways in which Rodin used and re-used the same stances, and even body parts, throughout his work.

History

The collection was brought together by Jules Mastbaum, an early film exhibitor in Philadelphia, who began assembling the works in 1913 with the idea of eventually donating them to the city. Mastbaum hired Jacques Greber, the French landscape architect responsible for the layout of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and his collaborator Paul Philippe Cret, to design the elegant gardens and the building in which the works are now housed. He died before the project was completed in 1929.

Insider Tip

Many of the sculptures are enticingly displayed outdoors in a formal garden or near the reflecting pool — offering one of Philadelphia’s most romantic settings and a true hidden gem.

Kids’ stuff

Children can see that Rodin used the same hand model for many of his sculptures. They will be curious to discover that Rodin was nearsighted and used his hands to discover the world through touch.