Musée Rodin, the Hôtel Biron on rue de Varenne since 1919

The Musée Rodin opened on 4 August 1919 on rue de Varenne, in the Hôtel Biron, to preserve and share the work of Auguste Rodin. The sculptor had made it the condition of his gift to the State: his sculptures, drawings and antiquities in exchange for a museum devoted to his work. He died in 1917, two years before it opened.

The mansion, completed in 1730 for Abraham Peyrenc de Moras, takes its name from the Maréchal de Biron. The Society of the Sacred Heart ran a girls’ school there until 1904; awaiting a buyer, it housed Jean Cocteau, Henri Matisse, Isadora Duncan and Rainer Maria Rilke. Rodin rented four rooms in 1908 and took the whole house from 1911.

In 1916 a law allowed the State to accept the gift, and Léonce Bénédite prepared the future museum. Listed in 1926, the mansion was restored from 2012 to 2015 and reopened for Rodin’s 175th birthday.

In the 7th arrondissement, on the corner of boulevard des Invalides, the three-hectare garden and its pond hold the monumental sculptures. The collection includes The Thinker, The Kiss and The Gates of Hell, with paintings by Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir from Rodin’s own collection.