The
Rodin Museum in Philadelphia was created by Jules Mustbaum (1872-1926), a local philanthropist who collected works by Rodin. He commissioned a neoclassical building to house his collection. The building was completed in 1929, a few years after his death.
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| Entrance to the Rodin Museum |
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) did not train at the School of Fine Arts in Paris but did follow many of their guiding principles and techniques. He also broke out on his own, often creating partial figures or focusing on formal qualities rather than narrative ones. His work was revolutionary and made him an exemplar for future sculptors.
His most famous work is
The Thinker, a copy of which is by the entrance. The work was originally modeled in clay and later cast in bronze in three different sizes. Out front is the original medium size.
The gateway at the entrance leads into a formal garden.
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| Inside the gate |
The Gates of Hell are the doors that seem to be the main entrance to the building (!). Rodin had a commission to create doors for a new museum. He drew inspiration from Dante's
The Divine Comedy. He made a chaotic melange of characters who suffer in the Inferno. The museum was never built but Rodin worked on the project on and off for over thirty years.
Interestingly, his depiction of Dante contemplating the souls in Hell was the origin of
The Thinker, which became an independent sculpture first exhibited in 1889 as
The Thinker: The Poet, Fragment of a Door.
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| Hey, I know that guy! |
During the 1346 siege of Calais, King Edward III demanded six of the town's leaders as prisoners in exchange for not harming the rest of the citizens. These prisoners were later spared thanks to the English queen's influence but the event was quite famous and Rodin sculpted
The Burghers of Calais for the town. The men are depicted walking dejectedly toward their fate, wearing sackcloth and rope halters.
Inside the museum are many smaller works. I enjoyed the whimsy of
The Hand from the Tomb.
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| Sculptures don't get more partial than this |
Danaid (The Source) is another castoff from
The Gates of Hell. The mythological character carried a leaking jug of water. Rodin sculpted it in clay and Jean Escoula carved a marble copy around 1902.
The Benedictions was to be part of a monument to French Workers. The angels would be at the top, showering blessings on the laborers below.
Emmanuel Fremiet's Joan of Arc is a triumphant French hero riding out from a victory.
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| Joan of Arc |
Seated Figure from the early 1890s was modeled in clay. Rodin used the same shape in his
Ecclesiastes crafted in 1898, though now the figure is on his back. Presumably the book is the Bible text.
At 22, Rodin joined a monastery after his older sister's death. He was only there for five months. While he was there, he made this bust of
Father Pierre-Julien Eymard.
This next bust is called
Colossal Head of Saint John the Baptist. It's clearly not post-decapitation, but still expresses the somberness of Jesus Christ's cousin.
Below is a copy of Rodin's
The Kiss. The work started as another part of
The Gates of Hell, with the two figures representing the adulterers Paolo and Francesca. Rodin exhibited it on its own in 1887, he decided not to use it for the doors and called it simply
The Kiss. Henri Greber received permission to copy the sculpture in 1929 specifically for this museum.
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| An alternate view |
Rodin worked on a monument to honor write Honore de Balzac. The art community was a bit underwhelmed by the execution. Local merchants made small, whimsical imitations, like the work on the right below, portraying Balzac as a seal!
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| Balzac and his imitator |
Rodin entered this sculpture in a competition to depict the heroism of the Parisians during the Franco-Prussian War. The contest was in 1879 and the judges were not ready for his style or his honest depiction of the suffering soldier supported by a winged spirit. After World War I, it was used in Verdun for a memorial to the battle fought there.
The Thinker is such a popular sculpture that the museum has a second, smaller version inside the museum for patrons to admire.
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| One side of the argument |
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| The other side |
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