Paris - Rodin

A quiet walk around Rodin’s garden rounded out my Thursday afternoon. (I’ll have to save the museum for another trip because I ran out of time). As expected, it was a pleasant stroll,and I was more than a little surprised by how much I liked the sculptures. All the figures had a real sense of emotion about them. You’ll see photos of one of my favourites below. I love that the expression is carried through the whole body, not just the face. The feet alone tell you how this man was feeling.

There is also a good selection of Rodin’s work in the Musée d’Orsay. It was in the museum later in the week that I finally made the connection between his “Gates of Hell” doors, and many of the other works from the garden. He was commissioned to create the Gates of Hell for the Museum of Decorative Arts being built at the time, but the money dried up, so it wasn’t until after Rodin’s death that the doors were the doors were finally cast in bronze. Probably upset that the doors weren’t going to be created, Rodin pulled out many of the figures and created full-sized sculptures from them. See the doors below, and a few of the full sized versions.


Want to see more about the Gates of Hell?

• Musee Rodin website
• a great website from a Boston College professor showing the doors with links to close-ups of various figure groups