Globe Corner Blogs

The Rodin museum was perhaps my favorite museum that I visited last week in Paris. Housed in a mansion where Rodin spent much of his time, the gardens are filled with casts of The Thinker and The Gates of Hell, set amidst giant, cone-shaped yew bushes and rows of flower beds. The mansion itself is fabulous, with ceilings at least 15 feet high, rocaille motifs, and a grand marble staircase below a giant crystal chandelier. The faded velvet furnishings are all originals, as are the cloudy old mirrors. There is a general sense that everything in this place has been here forever; the peeling paint on the ceilings lends an air of authenticity, and somehow reminds us that Rodin used to hang out here.

Besides the occasional side chair to rest in, the only other furniture in the mansion are marble-topped buffets and dressers, which, oddly, are used as pedestals for the smaller sculptures. This is a wonderful touch, mixing household objects with Rodin’s masterpieces. Many of the other works stand on rough wooden stools that look more like studio furniture than the precious stone plinths that sculptures from this era are often perched upon. I was there on a warm fall day, and a marble sculpture of two intertwined figures was positioned in front of two open French doors. The smell of the giant, fallen yellow leaves outside blew into the room, and when I stood opposite the window,  sunlight landed on the sculpture, showing off the marble’s translucency.

The works on display range throughout the artist’s life and vary in approach, from delicate, naturalistic marble busts, with stone so dewy it looks like skin, to the chunky, textured figurative works in bronze. Maquettes and examples of molds give the viewer some insight into the artistic process and the technicalities of casting in bronze, and various studies for major works like the Monument to Balzac help to illustrate  the artist’s thought process.

Tossed in amongst the sculptures are some incredible paintings from Rodin’s private collection by van Gogh, Renoir, and Carriere. They seem as though they might have been hung by Rodin himself, with wires and nails sticking out the back.

I was completely thrilled with the works displayed in the mansion, and had no idea that what was to be my favorite part of the exhibition was still ahead. In the separate, modern building at the main entrance was an separate exhibit comparing Matisse and Rodin, which included an incredible selection of both of the artist’s figure drawings.  Rodin’s drawings were, for me, the show-stopper of the entire museum: delicate, varying lines of pencil with broad, monochromatic  swaths of watercolor paint tossed about, they were simple, direct, and entirely masterful. My favorite was a head-on view of a woman (or mermaid?) just about to emerge from water (a liquidy, translucent swoosh blue paint). Somehow, with two materials and about a dozen pencil marks, he captured a motion and an instant at once.

http://www.musee-rodin.fr/welcome.htm

Read more: Art & Architecture, Museums, Paris, Travel


Kate lives and works in Chicago, IL. Her interests include fine arts, food and wine, and baseball.

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