Musee Rodin

One rainy Saturday in Paris, David and I decided to head to the Musee Rodin. It was a good day to be inside and see some of the most famous sculptures in the world.

Beside the museum building is a garden that displays 25 of Rodin’s sculptures in a beautiful park setting.We took a quick stroll despite the rain which only seemed to enhance the giant figures.

The one that you see in this photo above is entitled Ugolin and his Children depicting an episode from Dante’s Divine Comedy. Usually the sculpture is surrounded by a pool of water, but you only see a few chunks of ice in this photo, giving you an idea of the cool temperatures we have been having.

Of course, it is January, after all!

The interior of the Hotel Biron, which houses the main collection of sculptures, is a beautiful setting for the figures as you can see from the photos. Rodin lived here from 1908 and donated his entire collection of sculptures (along with some paintings by Van Gogh and Renoir that he had collected) to the French State if they would turn the place into a museum.

It was beautiful to see paintings by Van Gogh and Renoir displayed along with Rodin’s work.

In addition, there was a special exhibition of works by Matisse  and Rodin showing how they had influenced each other. Very interesting and worthwhile!

One of my favourite pieces in the museum was this one of the hands.

Rodin was a master at presenting the human form in superb detail. Yet he was interested in much more than just a rendering of the form. For Rodin, the gesture itself was important, and these hands to me seemed to be full of life and expression.

The position of the sculpture next to the window and the light accentuated every curve. The hands seemed poised on the verge of the next move. You almost felt that you should wait to see what they were going to do next.

I haven’t yet mentioned some of Rodin’s most famous works, and there are definitely some in this collection.

The Kiss is a perfect example of Rodin’s ability to express every feature of the physical form in exquisite detail.

Yet the sculpture evokes much more than just the physical representation of the bodies – the emotion and feelings are there as well. You can feel the sensations coming from the marble. He was truly a master at the expression of the human body!

And, of course, we saw Le Penseur – The Thinker.

This renowned work sits outside in the garden and, although it wasn’t the best of days for photography, when I raised my camera to take the photograph, I was amazed at the positioning of this sculpture so that the gilded dome of Les Invalides is also in the picture.

Time and time again during my stay in Paris, I have been struck by the deliberate placement of many of Paris’ fine buildings, monuments and sculptures so that they frame other famous features. It is as if the whole city has been planned with this artistic positioning in mind.

This is quite amazing to me since, on a map, the city looks as if it was not planned at all – streets run in all directions and there is no such thing as a grid.

I’m not sure how they managed to line up all these buildings and artistic features with such precision, especially since they were often constructed many years apart, but it makes for wonderful photographic opportunities!