Musée Rodin: The Thinker's Garden at Hôtel Biron
Why is it significant?
Through the railings of the garden, among the roses and clipped trees, you can glimpse a dark bronze man sitting on a rock, chin on his hand, lost in thought. Yes, that is The Thinker, and he has one of the most beautiful gardens in Paris all to himself.
Key Facts
| Place | Musée Rodin: The Thinker's Garden at Hôtel Biron |
|---|---|
| Address | 77 Rue de Varenne, 75007 Paris, France |
| Geo Coordinates | 48.85470, 2.31590 |
| Part of Walk | Iron, Glory and Gold: The Eiffel Tower, Trocadéro & Les Invalides in Paris |
| Generated | Generated |
Through the railings of the garden, among the roses and clipped trees, you can glimpse a dark bronze man sitting on a rock, chin on his hand, lost in thought. Yes, that is The Thinker, and he has one of the most beautiful gardens in Paris all to himself.
The mansion behind him is the Hôtel Biron, built in the 1720s for a financier who had made a dizzying fortune in the great speculation bubble of John Law's bank. It later took its name from a duke of Biron, a passionate gardener. In the nineteenth century it became a convent school for girls from wealthy families, run by nuns. Then, in the early 1900s, the French state took the building, and while it decided what to do with it, the empty rooms were rented out cheaply.
And who moved in? Some of the most famous artists of the age. The young poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who had worked as Rodin's secretary, took a room here and wrote to his old employer about this wonderful place. Henri Matisse taught painting here. The dancer Isadora Duncan rehearsed here, and the teenage Jean Cocteau had a room too. And Auguste Rodin, already the most celebrated sculptor in the world, took over the ground floor and filled the garden with his work.
Rodin made the French state an offer. He would give everything, his sculptures, his drawings, his collections, if they would turn the mansion into a museum of his work. Politicians argued for years. Some found his naked figures scandalous. The deal was finally accepted in 1916, Rodin died in November 1917, and the museum opened in 1919. He never saw it.
If you go in one day, look for The Gates of Hell, a giant bronze doorway crawling with tormented figures, which he worked on for more than thirty years. The Thinker was born there, sitting above the door, meant to be the poet Dante contemplating his own creation. Now walk north along the boulevard and turn left, to the grand front of the old soldiers' home.