Rodin Museum

The Rodin Museum is an art museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that holds one of the largest collections of sculptor Auguste Rodin's works outside Paris. Opened in 1929 and administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the institution houses nearly 150 objects including bronzes, marbles, and plasters by the French master. Its significance lies both in the breadth of its holdings and in its status as an early American monument to a single European sculptor, conceived during Rodin's own lifetime.

The museum originated as a gift to the city from Jules Mastbaum (1872-1926), a movie-theatre magnate who began collecting Rodin's works in 1923 with the explicit intent of founding a museum. Within three years he assembled the largest collection of Rodin outside France, encompassing bronze castings, plaster studies, drawings, prints, letters, and books. In 1926, Mastbaum commissioned French architects Paul Cret and Jacques Gréber to design the museum building and its gardens. Mastbaum died before construction was complete, but his widow, Etta Wedell Mastbaum, honored his commitment and saw the project through to its opening on November 29, 1929. Murals inside the museum were executed by painter Franklin C. Watkins. After decades of operation, the museum closed for a three-year, $9 million renovation and reopened in 2012 with the aim of restoring its original vision for displaying Rodin's works.

The collection numbers nearly 150 objects spanning bronzes, marbles, and plasters. Its particular strength lies in the depth of its Rodin holdings assembled during the artist's lifetime, giving it an unusually direct connection to Rodin's own studio practice and the authorized casts produced under his supervision.

The Thinker (1880-1882), Rodin's best-known work, sits in the entry courtyard. Visitors originally passed through a cast of The Gates of Hell at the main entrance; this 5.5-meter-tall bronze doorway, created for a projected Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris that never materialized, contains over 100 figures sculpted from 1880 until Rodin's death in 1917. The Philadelphia casting is one of three originals. Several of Rodin's most famous works, including The Thinker, began as studies for these doors. Other major works in the galleries include The Kiss (1886), Eternal Springtime (1884), The Age of Bronze (1875-76), and The Burghers of Calais, the monument commissioned by the city of Calais in 1884. In 2019, the museum opened a two-year special exhibition titled Rethinking the Modern Monument, curated by Alexander Kauffman, which paired sixteen works from the Philadelphia Museum of Art with selected Rodin sculptures and featured bronzes by Jean Arp, Barbara Hepworth, Jacques Lipchitz, Marino Marini, Chana Orloff, and Alberto Giacometti, among others.

The museum building and its gardens were designed by French architects Paul Cret and Jacques Gréber. The structure sits on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a grand ceremonial boulevard that connects Philadelphia's center to Fairmount Park. The French architectural lineage of the building was consonant with the origin of the collection it houses.

The Rodin Museum is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Its website is http://www.rodinmuseum.org/. Following the 2012 reopening after renovation, the museum continues to operate as a dedicated single-artist institution within the larger museum ecosystem of Philadelphia, offering visitors direct encounter with one of the most concentrated Rodin collections in the world.