Week of March 14th 2011: Musee Rodin (Paris)

I’ve been in love with The Thinker since I was in elementary school. This may become evident in future posts, but I was really lucky to go to private schools up until college. Because of this, my education was filled with a lot of fine arts and I always gravitated to the art classes. At my elementary school, it was well known that the 8^th graders got to make a replica Thinker sculpture and that a good portion of the year was spent studying Rodin and making sketches of his work in order to understand the sculpture. I was so excited to do this and then my 8^th grade year was the first time they didn’t do the project. Since then, I’ve had such a big fascination with the statue, the project I never got to work on it.

So I knew I had to go to the Musee Rodin on this trip to Paris. The museum is mostly outdoors in a garden surrounding a chateau. The most famous of Rodin’s sculptures are hidden around the garden. Our first stop, was the Thinker statue where we took our stereotypical touristy, pensive pictures in front of the statue. The statue is well placed near the edge of the garden so you can see the dome of Les Invalides behind it.

We continued around the garden seeing other famous works like Rodin’s Muse and a fountain with several statues around it. Eventually we made our way full circle through the garden and came across another very famous piece, the Gates of Hell. This isn't the best picture but this piece of artwork is truly incredible. It is so detailed and large, I can only imagine how much work went into it. I also did not know until I saw it that many pieces, such as the Thinker, were created as part of the Gates of Hell and then became more famous on their own. 

In the middle of the garden, is an old house. The house stores more of Rodin's delicate, easy to stain marble pieces. It also holds several paintings of his as well - basically, anything you wouldn't want kept in a garden. I took so many pictures in here but a few pieces stood out. There was one of a large hand that was incredibly detailed. I also really loved this passionate scene between a man and a woman. It was a little frustrating because I wanted to get a good look at it but it was blocked by a tour group who wasn't even looking at that particular piece. That kind of thing really gets on my nerve, be respectful of the other visitors. Eventually, they moved on and I was able to get a snapshot.

I'd love to return to this museum when it's a little nicer out. The weather was a little chillier than an SF winter day so it was tolerable but I could only imagine sitting on the lawns on a summer day with a sketchbook and really enjoying the unique set up of the museum.