Rodin Museum Private Tour - The Famous Kiss

Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel not only worked together, but had a deep artistic and personal relationship. They began collaborating around 1883, when Claudel became Rodin’s student, assistant, and later his lover. She contributed to several of his major works (sometimes modeling hands or feet, or assisting with large compositions), while also developing her own distinct sculptural style.

Their collaboration mainly took place in Paris, especially in Rodin’s studios:

• Hôtel Biron (now the Musée Rodin) — one of the most famous locations
• Dépôt des Marbres — a government workshop where Rodin had space
• Various private studios in Paris where Rodin employed assistants

Claudel also had her own studio, where she created independent works such as The Waltz and The Age of Maturity, especially as their relationship became more strained.

Sculptures in Rodin Museum

Auguste Rodin is considered one of the founders of modern sculpture. His works are instantly recognizable because they broke away from classical perfection and focused on emotion, movement, and realism.

Here are the most characteristic sculptures and what makes them important:

• The Thinker

A seated man leans forward, resting his chin on his hand, his body tense as if thinking deeply. The sculpture expresses intense concentration and the weight of human thought. You can see it at the Musée Rodin in Paris (one of the most famous casts).

• The Gates of Hell

A monumental bronze door covered with writhing figures in pain and passion, inspired by Dante’s Inferno. It presents a chaotic vision of human suffering and desire. Displayed at the Musée Rodin in Paris.

• The Kiss

Two lovers embrace in a tender, intimate moment. Their bodies are smooth and harmonious, capturing both passion and softness. One version is at the Musée Rodin; another famous one is at the Tate in London.

• The Walking Man

A headless, armless figure strides forward. Despite its incompleteness, the sculpture powerfully conveys movement and vitality. Visible at the Musée Rodin in Paris.

• The Burghers of Calais

Six men stand together before a sacrifice, each expressing fear, courage, or despair. The group highlights human emotion rather than heroic glory. The original monument is in Calais; casts can also be seen at the Musée Rodin.

Across Rodin Sculptures

Rodin changed sculpture by showing that imperfection and raw emotion could be more powerful than beauty alone.

• Emotional intensity → figures show pain, love, thought, struggle
• Realistic bodies → not idealized like ancient Greek statues
• Rough surfaces → visible marks give energy and life
• Movement → poses feel alive, not frozen
• Fragmentation → incomplete bodies still feel powerful

The sculpture which occupies a central place in their story does not always happen serenely: learning, frustration, search for the expression, the model … but source of an inevitable and deep connivance of their minds … After ten years of passionate love, misunderstandings and mutual disappointments, Camille Claudel draws a line on their own story and never recovered from his break with him. She died in relative obscurity, from alleged mental illness, her family sent her in mental hospital the rest of her life while Rodin desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris’s foremost school of art.

Rodin’s Lover Camille Claudel Museum Private Tour

The national Camille Claudel Museum in Nogent-sur-Seine opened in 2017, and the Musée Rodin in Paris has a room dedicated to Claudel’s works.

Sad sentimental painful lives but both great artists. Let’s compare those two artists with “le baiser” (The Kiss) from Rodin and “Sakountala” from Camille Claudel. When she sculpts the entwined couple of Sakountala, he, at the same time, delivers his Kiss, vibrating echo of a shared passion.

Le baiser (The Kiss) in Rodin Museum – Private Tour with Licensed Guide

The Kiss (marble) originally represented Paolo and Francesca, characters from The Divine Comedy, poem by Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). Killed by Francesca’s husband who had caught them kissing, the two lovers were sentenced to wander the underworld. This couple, conceived early by Rodin, in the creative process of The Door of Hell, figured prominently at the bottom of the left wing, facing Ugolin, until 1886, when the sculptor became aware that this representation of Happiness and sensuality was at odds with the theme of his great project.

Sakountala by Camille Claudel Private Tour

Sakountalâ is a poem by Kâlidâsa (4th-5th centuries ago), famous Hindu poet, telling the story of a Hindu drama representing the reunion of Sakountala and her husband to nirvana. This sculpture is a representation of what awakened this elegiac theme in the work of Camille Claudel. The Sakountala plaster won an honorable mention to Camille Claudel at the Salon des artistes français in 1888. A marble translation kept at the Rodin Museum bears the name of Vertumne and Pomone. Exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in 1905, the bronze is called L’Abandon and edited by Blot.

Rodin Museum Private Tour in Paris

Enjoy a visit at Le Musée de Rodin in Paris.

The Musée Rodin in Paris is a museum opening in 1919, the Hôtel Biron and surrounding grounds in central Paris. The collection includes 6,600 sculptures, 8,000 drawings, 8,000 old photographs, and 7,000 objets d’art. The museum receives 700,000 visitors annually. The virility of the artist, nicknamed in his time the “Sacred Goat”, provoked semi-public or private drama and is at the center of a plastic expression of sensuality, eroticism, but also pain. In 1864, he met Rose Beuret, daughter of a farmer from Haute-Marne. This seamstress worker, aged 20, will serve as a model and become his companion. He married her on January 29, 1917, at the end of their lives, while he had many lovers. In 1866, he will have a son Auguste Eugène Beuret (1866-1934), who he will never recognize. When you talk about Rodin, you must talk about Camille Claudel (8 December 1864 – 19 October 1943) who was also a French sculptor. She was the lover and co-worker of sculptor Auguste Rodin, for 10 years of passion and competition… war of ego.

Cheers, Emy

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