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Musée Rodin wishes you a very happy 2012!
Make the most of family visits to the Musée Rodin with audioguides
All year round, two audioguides for family visits invite parents and children to discover the gardens and permanent collection with the help of an interactive plan.
How can children learn to appreciate sculpture while having fun, at the same time as parents broaden their own knowledge? Armed with an interactive plan enabling people to find their way around the museum easily, each participant has a large pen which, when pointed at the images, sets off a commentary and leads the family from one work to the next. Two different guides are available: “Rodin and his Garden” focuses on the grounds; “In Search of Rodin” conducts visitors through the Hôtel Biron.
Information:
Admission: Family ticket (2 adults and children under 18): € 10
Audioguide rental: For an audioguided visit comprising an Audiopen© and a plan: ¤ 3 for an adult and a child; € 1.5 per extra device.
Recommended age: 6-12. The audioguides are available in French or English.
The Musée Rodin acquires a painting by François Lemoyne
The museum regularly makes new acquisitions with a view to building up an exhaustive collection of both works and documents by filling in some of the gaps.
Last June, the museum made a major acquisition relevant to the history of the Hôtel Biron, a purchase that is part of a long and complex scheme to reconstruct the original interior decoration. Built for Abraham Peyrenc de Moras by Jean Aubert, the architect who designed the Great Stables at the Château of Chantilly, the townhouse was decorated with a series of eighteen paintings, commissioned from François Lemoyne (1688-1737), First Painter to the King, circa 1729. Shortly afterwards, Lemoyne commenced the ceiling painting in the Hercules Room, at the Château of Versailles. In 1820, the Hôtel Biron underwent a dramatic transformation after the estate was purchased by the nuns of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, who sold the decorative elements for both financial and moral reasons.
The recent acquisition is one of four overdoor paintings illustrating The Four Times of Day – Morning, Midday, Evening and Night – which adorned the central drawing room, the formal reception room overlooking the garden between the two ground-floor apartments. While Midday or Venus and the Graces showing Cupid the Ardour of his Arrows was bought by the museum in 1985, the latest purchase with a similar use of vivid colour is Evening or Diana Returning from the Hunt (irregular-shaped oil on canvas mounted in a rectangle, 168 x 113.5 cm).
Seated on the right, Diana turns towards three other women, her hunting companions, who are showing her a dead doe. Diana points her right finger at their prize; the anxious faces of the young nymphs might indicate that the goddess disapproves of their act, for they have just killed a doe instead of a stag.
This exceptional acquisition, preempted and purchased with the help of France’s national heritage fund, will be on view in the museum amidst the wood panelling and other paintings previously purchased and remounted in the oval cabinets, such as The Labours of Penelope, in 1989, and Hercules delivering Hesione, reinstalled thanks to an exchange policy with the City of Nancy set up in 1998.
Discover THE MUSÉE RODIN MEUDON, OPEN UNTIL 30 SEPTEMBER
Works in plaster exhibited at the Musée Rodin Meudon
For several years now, the Musée Rodin in Meudon has closed for the winter and reopened in spring.
Here is a chance to discover the studio-museum which is also an ever-charming artist’s residence.
Situated on the heights of Meudon, the estate overlooks the Seine and comprises two buildings. The Villa des Brillants is a modest-looking, Louis XIII-style house in brick and stone, which Auguste Rodin purchased at an auction sale on 19 December 1895. In the course of its renovation in 1997, the sculptor’s living and work environment was reconstructed from period photographs.
The museum below, inaugurated in 1948, houses numerous plasters, including casts for Rodin’s monumental works in their successive stages: from The Gates of Hell to The Burghers of Calais group, plus several studies and figures for Balzac or the monuments to Victor Hugo, Puvis de Chavannes and Whistler, installed on a central platform. Prior to being cast in bronze or carved in marble, these models, studies or variants provide insight into the first phase of Rodin’s creative process.
During the sculptor’s lifetime, the estate offered an environment conducive to the development of his career. In 1900, about 50 people, including sculptor’s assistants, workers and casters, were employed by Rodin here. Although he continued to go to his Parisian studios every day, especially the one at the Dépôt des Marbres, his most essential creative work was done in Meudon. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke, whom he had asked to be his private secretary, lived on the premises from 1905.
“The effect of this vast hall filled with light, where all these dazzling white sculptures seem to gaze out at you from behind high glass doors, like creatures in an aquarium, is extremely powerful. It makes a huge, a tremendous impression…” (letter from Rilke to his wife Clara, 2 September 1902).
His Meudon estate soon became an inevitable port of call for an endless stream of friends, sitters, patrons and celebrities from France and abroad.
Nowadays, visitors discover the atmosphere of both a studio and an artist’s residence in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the garden, the statue of The Thinker watches over the tomb of Rodin and Rose Beuret, lady of the house and the sculptor’s lifelong companion.
Information:
Address
Villa des Brillants | 19, avenue Auguste Rodin | 92190 Meudon | Tel. +33 (0)1 41 14 35 00
Access
RER line C: to Meudon Val Fleury, then bus no. 169 (get off at Paul Bert)
Metro line 12: to Mairie d’Issy, then bus no. 190 (get off at Hôpital Percy)
Museum opening times
From 1 April to 30 September 2011
Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, 1pm-6pm
Ticket office closes at 5.15pm
Admission: 4 euros
Free admission for under-18s and EU citizens aged 18-25
