Art museum · 1919–present · Paris, France

Musée Rodin

The Musée Rodin is a dedicated museum in Paris presenting the work of Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), the sculptor widely regarded as the founder of modern sculpture. Established in 1919 at the Hôtel Biron, an 18th-century rococo mansion in the 7th arrondissement, the museum holds the largest public collection of Rodin’s works, including original plasters, marbles, bronzes, drawings, and photographs. Its sculpture garden — one of the finest in Paris — displays The Thinker, The Gates of Hell, and The Burghers of Calais in an open-air setting against the backdrop of the restored Hôtel Biron.

At a glance

Type: Monographic sculpture and fine arts museum
Period: Hôtel Biron built c. 1730; museum established 1919; major renovation completed 2015
Style: Hôtel Biron: French Rococo (18th century); gardens: formal French landscape
Location: 79 rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris, France
Coordinates: 48.8553° N, 2.3136° E

Overview

The museum occupies the Hôtel Biron and its surrounding three-hectare garden, adjacent to Les Invalides in the 7th arrondissement of Paris. The permanent collection comprises around 6,600 sculptures, 8,000 drawings, and 8,000 photographs, as well as Rodin’s personal collection of antiquities, which includes works by Van Gogh, Renoir, and Monet. In exchange for state ownership of the Hôtel Biron and its gardens, Rodin bequeathed his entire estate — works, archives, and collection — to the French state, an arrangement formalised by the law of 1916 that created the museum. After a €12 million renovation completed in 2015, both the mansion and its gardens have been returned to their 18th-century appearance.

History

The Hôtel Biron was built around 1730 for the wigmaker Abraham Peyrenc de Moras and later passed to the Maréchal de Biron, giving it its current name. Sequestered during the Revolution, it became in the early 20th century a rooming house for artists: Isadora Duncan, Henri Matisse, Jean Cocteau, and Rodin himself all rented studios there between 1908 and 1917. Rodin took up residence in 1908, eventually occupying the ground floor and the garden; he lived and worked at the Biron until his death in November 1917, just weeks after the French government formalised the museum’s creation. The museum opened to the public in 1919, two years after Rodin’s death, and immediately became one of Paris’s most visited cultural sites.

What you see

In the garden, three of Rodin’s most celebrated works are displayed at monumental scale: The Thinker (1880–1882) on a stone plinth near the entrance, The Burghers of Calais (1889) on a low platform in the north garden, and The Gates of Hell (1880–1917) — the vast bronze portal that occupied Rodin for nearly four decades and served as source material for dozens of his best-known figures. Inside the mansion, ground-floor rooms decorated with 18th-century boiseries display original marbles including The Kiss (1882) and The Hand of God (1898), alongside plaster models showing Rodin’s working process. Upper floors are dedicated to drawings, photographs, and Rodin’s personal art collection, including five paintings by Van Gogh.

Cultural significance

Auguste Rodin is credited with liberating Western sculpture from the academic tradition of his time, and the Musée Rodin preserves the full arc of his development — from early Salon pieces to the unresolved, fragmented forms that anticipate 20th-century modernism. The museum’s combination of historic mansion, formal garden, and outdoor sculpture makes it one of the most visited museums in France, typically attracting over 700,000 visitors annually. Its collection continues to influence contemporary artists and sculptors, and the museum actively lends works to exhibitions worldwide.

Practical information

Address: 79 rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris
Opening hours: Tuesday–Sunday 10:00–18:30; closed Monday. Check official website for current hours and seasonal variations.
Admission: Paid entry; garden-only ticket available at reduced rate. Free for visitors under 26 from EU countries. Check official website for current rates.
Website: musee-rodin.fr

Getting there

The museum is a short walk from Varenne metro station (line 13), directly in front of which stands Rodin’s statue of Balzac at the Esplanade des Invalides. Alternatively, Saint-François-Xavier (line 13) is an eight-minute walk. Bus lines 69, 82, 87, and 92 stop on rue de Varenne or boulevard des Invalides. The museum entrance is on rue de Varenne; a secondary garden entrance exists on boulevard des Invalides. Bicycle parking is available at Vélib’ stations on nearby streets.

Sources & resources

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Between a photo shoot under the Eiffel Tower, a visit to the Arc de Triomphe or a boat ride on the Seine among the destinations in Paris, the Rodin museum cannot be missed. An art lover will certainly have among the main destinations the gallery dedicated to the famous French sculptor and painter, but the Rodin museum is a must to be for any tourist discovering Paris.



This museum contains not only many works by the Parisian artist, but also works by Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent van Gogh and many others. A place where art, history and culture come together, immersing the visitor in a unique and exciting context. The museum is located on two floors of a former Parisian hotel (the Biron) and, even after the last restoration, it has retained its Rococo style. It is no coincidence that this very structure has become Rodin&#39;s &quot;home&quot; in Paris, in this enchanting place the great French painter and sculptor lived and worked, universally considered the progenitor of what will be modern sculpture, in the final part of the his life (precisely between 1908 and 1917).



For years now, the Asian area has represented a field of considerable commercial potential for the Western art world - just think of the European exhibition giant Art Basel which has transplanted its outpost in Hong Kong and the many galleries that have decided to open in the East a location of their business (Pace Gallery, Massimo De Carlo, Gagosian, White Cube, Hauser &amp; Wirth, David Zwirner - just to name a few - in the aforementioned Hong Kong, but also the Italian Galleria Continua in Beijing).



But the charm of the East not only captivates fairs and galleries: not even the French cultural institutions are extraneous to this &quot;trend&quot; which, at least until now, are showing a particular weakness for China. Just a year ago we told you about the collaboration agreement signed between the Center Pompidou in Paris and the West Bund Art Museum, the new cultural district of Shanghai, for a partnership that includes a program of exhibitions on 20th and 21st century art. ; in recent days, however, again from Paris, news of a new collaboration between France and China arrives: even the Mus&eacute;e Rodin will soon open its outpost in the Asian country.



Inaugurated in 1919, the Rodin Museum is one of the main attractions of Paris with its vast collection consisting of about seven thousand sculptures, hundreds of marbles, plaster casts and bronzes arranged in 18 rooms within the museum and in the surrounding gardens. Among the main works on display we highlight &quot;The Kiss&quot;, &quot;The Walking Man&quot;, &quot;The Thinker&quot;, The Burghers of Calais and &quot;The Gate of Hell&quot;.



Rodin spent the last years of his life in the building, precisely between 1908 and 1917.
The year before his death he left all the works he owned to the French state, but left them in the building with the aim of creating a museum.
In the 1900s many other artists lived in this museum including: Jean Cocteau, Henri Matisse, Isadora Duncan.

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