Musée Rodin, Hôtel Biron, 7th Arrondissement, Paris
Musée Rodin is a sophisticated museum housed in a pretty 18th century chateau called Hôtel Biron on rue de Varenne in the 7th arrondissement. Surrounded by elegant dwellings, lush private gardens and foreign embassies, this museum has to be my favourite, as is the arrondissement it lives in.
Peaceful reflection is the norm in the sculpture garden and hushed admiration of the art works within the walls of Hôtel Biron is how I would describe the vibe of visitors to this museum.
There is so much to share with you about this museum. The history involving evicted nuns no less; perfectly designed gardens; paintings, and sculptures including The Thinker, The Gates of Hell and Balzac; and the architecturally magnificent Hôtel Biron. Let's find out why the Rodin Museum is the most beautiful museum in Paris.
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The History of Museum Rodin
Rodin’s museum has the distinctive feature of occupying a location chosen by the artist himself. The Hôtel Biron, a delightful rococo mansion designed by the architect Jean Aubert and built in 1732, was practically abandoned when Rodin discovered it in 1908. He began by renting four ground-floor rooms before taking over the whole building from 1911 onwards, thereby laying the foundations for what would become the Musée Rodin on August 4, 1919. The works on display in the museum are bathed in the natural light that enters through the large bay windows overlooking the garden. The impression changes from one season to the next and the play of natural light illuminates the sculptures differently according to the time of day. - Musée Rodin
Originally a popular destination for Parisian high society, the Hôtel building changed hands several times until it eventually became a convent run by the Sacred Heart of Jesus. This however was to the detriment of the interior as the nuns found the sumptuous décor a little too frivolous and too much to look at, so they had much of the elaborate interior removed.
The nuns are eventually evicted !
The garden became their orchard and the mansion itself became a rather austere place. Due to the complicated legal system, it was not until 1904 that the nuns were eventually evicted and the hotel welcomed artists including Henri Matisse, dancer Isadora Duncan, and the poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau who took up lodgings there. Rodin loved the hotel so much after visiting that he also took up lodgings, renting four rooms. Loving the hôtel so much he negotiated to stay until his death in return for donating his works.
Rodin moves into Hôtel Biron
When Rodin moved into Hôtel Biron in 1908 the main courtyard looked rather more built up. It was lined on both sides by buildings that bordered the mansion, so this wasn't a detached house surrounded by a garden. Instead, it had buildings to the right and Hôtel du Maine to the left.
In 1912, after the French state purchased the entire estate, the neighbouring buildings were demolished, leaving Hôtel Biron standing alone within the garden. And after it was turned into a museum, the state created the rose gardens on one side and the main courtyard on the other. The overall result resembled what is generally considered a typical 18th Century garden.
Musée Rodin Gardens
Rodin strolled through the beautiful three-hectare garden that surrounds Hôtel Biron in the last years of his life, between 1908 and 1916 and the gardens are open to visitors to explore and stroll through also. They are one of the finest gardens, not only in Paris' 7th arrondissement, but some think of all of the capital's elegant mansions. Rodin first saw the gardens in a very overgrown state and began to place some of the pieces from his collection and antique sculptures here.
Today, the garden has around 30 bronze sculptures, covering almost the whole of Rodin's career. You can see monuments from his very earliest works, right up to Balzac, created in 1888, which caused quite a scandal.
The gardens are now lovingly attended and designed to show off strategically placed sculptures. Rose beds, clipped hedges, ponds and informal paths are what I love most about this beautiful museum.
Today, the Musee Rodin owns the rights to the artist's works and is the only institution authorised to display his original works in bronze. The bronzes in the garden were produced based on his original plaster cast models.
The Bust of Rodin's Father, Jean-Baptiste Rodin
Rodin’s first bust was of his father, Jean-Baptiste Rodin. It was made when he was about 20 years old. Rodin was born in Paris and grew up in a modest family. From a very early age, he showed an aptitude for drawing and at the age of 14 he enrolled in the Special Imperial School for Mathematics and Drawing. Rodin failed to get in three times, so when he was 17, he started to work in various sculptor's workshops.
He began to make his first portraits using people close to him as his models. The bust of his father shows his dad with a severe outlook, Roman thin nose and pursed lips. (Not pictured above) Rodin's father was a civil servant in the Paris police department and a painting made of him at the same time is considered to be probably more like how his father looked - but the bust is what is more famous.
The Monumental Thinker
The original Thinker was created in 1880 for The Gates of Hell and is only 70 centimetres tall whereas the monumental Thinker, as pictured above in the garden of Rodin Museum, measures nearly 2 metres. The monumental model was installed in front of the Panthéon in 1906 and transferred to the Rodin Museum in 1922.
Because The Thinker is the most famous of all Rodin's work, I thought it deserved its own post so to read more see our post The Thinker by Auguste Rodin - Rodin Museum.
The Gates of Hell
The Gates of Hell is one of Rodin's most famous monuments which inspired much of his creative work. Rodin received the commission in 1880 when he was 40 and still relatively unknown as an artist. He had just returned to Paris after a long spell in Brussels and needed to win some public commissions if he was to gain recognition.
The Fine Arts Administration gave him just the break he needed, asking him to create a monumental gate for a decorative art museum being planned at the time. The terms of the commission dictated that the gates should be decorated with bas-reliefs inspired by The Divine Comedy. The work by the great 14th Century poet Dante describes the poet's descent into Hell where he meets those who are condemned into Hell along its pathways for all eternity to atone for their sins.
These are the characters that Rodin chose to depict on his gate, but his vision very quickly grew beyond that starting point. He set out to create an entire world, to paint a picture of the suffering and torment of humanity itself. The piece was due to be delivered in 1885 but Rodin continued to work on and off on the piece over the next 37 years. He worked on the Gates of Hell until his death in 1917. He was never fully satisfied and kept adding new figures and removing others. As a consequence, the gates became a sort of creative laboratory.
Several dozen figures created for the gates would be re-used for new works at a later date, while some of them even became sculptures in their own right such as the Thinker and the Kiss, as well as Ugolino. In the two doors of The Gates, you can see figures in very light relief in the background, others in bas-relief emerging from the background, and others virtually around in very high relief.
Up on the parts known as the tympanum is The Thinker. Rodin never really finished his gates, but the bronze version you see represents the state of the work in 1980 and reflects the state that Rodin himself was in at the end of his life.
Honoré de Balzac Sculpture in Rodin Museum
Commissioned in 1891 by the Société des Gens de Lettres, the monument to novelist Honoré de Balzac (1977-1850) was presented at the Salon of 1898, where it sparked outrage. It was kept by Rodin, but not cast in bronze until after his death. The figure is a Symbol of the creator draped in the monk's habit that he wore when writing. Rodin used the drapery to exalt the head with its striking mass of hair.
Although the statue of Balzac can be considered Rodin's artistic legacy, it's also the work that created the fiercest outcry. Rodin received the commission and set to work enthusiastically, researching his life, reading his books, and studying his portrait. On 30 April, 1888 the eagerly awaited Balzac was presented in plaster at the Salon of the Fine Arts where the reaction was swift. It was on 9 May the Société des Gens de Lettres quickly announced to Rodin that they were rejecting the work, saying that Balzac was unrecognisable.
Rodin was a modern thinker and felt that sculpture should not be like photography. He thought an artist should work with not only his hands but, above all, with his brain. He felt that Balzac in this pose, makes us think of the places that he walked, lived, and thought. He is not separate from his environment, but rather he is like a real, living being.
The society that had commissioned the work was not the only one to be up in arms at the works innovative approach. The public at large saw it as a shapeless mass and the caricaturists had a field day. The statue was compared to a seal, a block of salt after a shower, a lopsided doorman, a snowman in a straitjacket and a dripping candle.
Rodin's work marked a break in the conventions governing public works in the 19th Century, whereby the features of the person being celebrated were always easily identifiable. With his Balzac, Rodin created a different portrayal of a writer.
Rodin's Balzac was not recognisable by his clothes, his posture and he defied the norm by not holding a book or pen. Rodin's sole interest was in the novelist's creative powers, represented in the dressing gown Balzac wore while working. This robe with ample folds and a simple design covering his body, directs our gaze to his head. His physical features are reduced to a concentration of expressive traits. Rejected and scorned the statue returned to Rodin's workshop and never became a monument cast in bronze.
Musée Rodin's Painting Collection
Rodin Museum has many famous paintings in its collection including some by Van Gogh that Rodin owned. Van Gogh and Rodin never met, but the sculptor particularly admired the Dutch painter's work, describing him as an "admirable demolisher of academic formulae", but one who also "possessed the genius of light".
Rodin, Van Gogh and Monet
Van Gogh painted a number of portraits and Rodin collected a few of them. Van Gogh and Rodin shared a love of Japanese painters and while some of Van Gogh's work displays a Japanese influence, Rodin however never connected any references to Japan in his work.
Rodin also collected Monet's work and was known to exchange sculptures for paintings. In one exchange, Rodin gave Monet a sculpture and Monet gave Rodin in return a painting of Belle-Île (the "beautiful isle") of Brittany.
It's believed that the exchange was probably a short time after Monet's stay on Belle-Île. Both men supported each other and also shared the same birth year. Another thing they had in common was that they exhibited their works alongside each other at Galeries Georges Petit.
Rodin and His Mistress the Duchess of Choiseul
The Hôtel Biron was where Rodin conducted his relationship with the woman who was the last great passion of his life, the Duchess of Choiseul. Claire Coudert was an American who became a duchess by marriage and met Rodin through her husband. After becoming his mistress she took his affairs in hand and helped his career take off in the United States, partly by encouraging the establishment to have a permanent collection of Rodin's work at The Metropolitan Museum.
Rodin modelled a bust of his mistress, which is quite well known and a permanent inclusion in the Museum's collection. This famous work of his is loved for its light-hearted portrayal of his lover with its prominent cheekbones and open mouth. She looks like she's smiling and laughing.
Why the Rodin Museum is the Most Beautiful Museum in Paris
So in summary, I think this is the most beautiful museum because:
- The gardens are simply stunning with formal rose beds, clipped hedges, ponds, fountains and meandering paths.
- Sculptures by modern day master Auguste Rodin, are dotted throughout the garden and are artfully displayed in thoughtful grouping in Hôtel Biron. This is the largest collection of Rodin's work in the world and that alone makes this museum very special.
- Rodin Museum is nowhere near as crowded as other museums or popular Paris tourist attractions, so it's a perfect place for a romantic walk, a bit of down-time in a busy holiday and some peaceful reflection of major artwork.
- Hôtel Biron is a beautiful example of rococo architecture and the wall paneling, parquetry floors and chandeliers can be observed up close.
- Delightful and with delicious food, the Museum cafe L'Augustine is a lovely option to enjoy gourmet food and amenities.
Details of Musée Rodin
Address: 79 rue de Varenne, 7th arrondissement, Paris
Official website for opening times and online tickets: www.musee-rodin.fr
To experience this most beautiful museum, join me on our escorted all-women 7-day tour of Paris where we visit Rodin Museum on Day 6.
