Musée Rodin in Paris – The Thinker, The Kiss and the garden

In a townhouse dating from the 1730s on rue de Varenne, Auguste Rodin worked during his final years. Musée Rodin in Paris is today one of the city's most beautiful museums – and the three-hectare garden is reason enough to linger.

The Musée Rodin in Paris's 7th arrondissement is one of the city's most peaceful museums. The building is a rococo palace, the garden is large enough to get lost in, and among rose bushes and trimmed trees stand some of the world's most famous sculptures. Here is the history of the house and what you shouldn't miss.

Hôtel Biron: a palace for a financier

The house was built between 1727 and 1732 to designs by the architect Jean Aubert, for the financier Abraham Peyrenc de Moras, who had made money from John Law's paper money. He died the year after the house was completed. The Duchess of Maine, daughter-in-law of Louis XIV, rented it from 1737, and after her death in 1753 Marshal Biron took it over – it is his name the house bears. Later the house served, among other things, as a papal legation, a Russian embassy and a convent for the Société du Sacré-Cœur, where the future Empress Eugénie received her education.

Rodin, Matisse and Cocteau move in

When the convent left the building in 1905, the rooms were let out to artists. Rodin, Jean Cocteau and Henri Matisse all had studios here, and Rodin used the house as a studio from 1908 while he was living in Meudon. In 1911 the French state bought the property, and Rodin offered his collections – his own works and paintings by Van Gogh, Monet and Renoir – on condition that the house became a museum of his art. The museum opened in 1919. By then, Rodin had been dead for two years.

What not to miss

Inside the house are The Kiss and a long series of works from Rodin's entire career, from the early The Man with the Broken Nose to studies for Balzac. One room is dedicated to Camille Claudel, Rodin's pupil, collaborator and beloved, with works such as The Age of Maturity, The Wave and The Waltz. Rodin's own collection of ancient art and his paintings – three Van Goghs, including Le Père Tanguy, a Renoir and Monet's Belle-Île – can also be found in the museum.

Out in the garden stand the bronzes: The Thinker, The Burghers of Calais and the unfinished Gates of Hell, Rodin's enormous portal with figures from Dante's The Divine Comedy. The Gates of Hell contains elements from several of his most famous works, among them The Thinker and The Kiss.

The garden: three hectares in the middle of the city

The garden surrounding Hôtel Biron covers roughly three hectares. From the paths, you can see the dome of Les Invalides above the trees. Behind the house there is a pond and a café, and further down walking paths with sculptures amid the greenery. On an early autumn morning, when the leaves have turned yellow and the gravel paths are empty, it is one of the quietest places in Paris.

The area around the museum

The museum is located on the corner of rue de Varenne and boulevard des Invalides. The street is lined with townhouses, including Hôtel Matignon, the Prime Minister's residence. Alain Passard's three-starred Arpège is located on the same street, and rue du Bac is a few minutes away. The whole neighbourhood can be found on VERA PI's page about the 7th arrondissement.

Good to know