Rodin Museum Private Tour

Our Rodin Museum Tour is a private guided tour in which our fully licensed guide Lecturer will help you to make the most of your visit to the Musée Rodin, a fantastic collection in an amazing mansion.

Photo of Hotel Biron Rodin Museum 18th century mansion view from its park to illustrate the Rodin Museum private tour Museum in Paris, France.

Rodin Museum Tour: Photo of Hotel Biron Rodin Museum 18th century mansion. Rear view from the park

Rodin Museum Private Tour in a Nutshell

From 130 € for 1 to 2 people + 25 € per extra personn

  • +/- 2 hours guided tour in English
  • Really private tour = your party only (6 people max.) 
  • Postgraduate (MPhil) certified French national guide
  • Flexible time schedule
  • Not available on Mondays 
  • Skip-the-line ticket to buy online (14 € per adult) 

Skip-the-line-tickets clarification : on-line tickets.

KNOW MORE / BOOK NOW

Rodin Museum Master Pieces

The Gates of Hell, The Inner Voice, Danaïd, Monument to Balzac, Monument to The Burghers of Calais, The Cathedral, The Walking Man, The Kiss, The Age of Bronze,
Ugolino and His Sons, Sleep,
etc.

Rodin Museum does not guarantee the presence of all artworks; some may be temporarily out of the museum.

Tour Figures

Edward Steichen

Antoine Bourdelle

Camille Claudel

Hanako

Rainer Maria Rilke

Tour Themes

Paintings

Photographs

Architecture

Antiques

Drawings

Tour Concepts & Technics

Practitioners

Enlargement 

Fragmentation

Abbatis

Assemblage

Tour Mediums

Wax

Plasters

Terracottas

Bronzes

Marbles

Your Private Rodin Museum Tour Guide

Certified French national guide
BA, Magna Cum Laude, Heritage Developpement & Preservation from Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers
Postgraduate from Paris Dauphine-PSL University

Know more about Yves, your private tour guide in Paris

Why a Rodin Museum Tour?

Our private tour of the Rodin Museum allows you to delve deeper into the life and art of Auguste Rodin in an amazing, famous 18th-century mansion that has been used as a studio and home by Rodin for over 20 years.

A large portion of the museum’s collection comes from Rodin’s collection,

The Rodin Museum Private Tour experience is a unique and intimate way to explore the works of one of the world’s greatest sculptors.

But most of all, our tour offers a coherent and ordered approach to Rodin’s work to help you understand it, which is not so easy initially!

Photo of the Dome of the Invalides from Musee Rodin garden

The Musée Rodin is situated in Paris’s 7th arrondissement (district), probably the most prestigious one. The Invalides, where is buried Napoleon is just beside the Museum. The Invalides’s Dome is visible from the Museum’s Gardens.

Rodin Museum Tour Organisation

Except in case of rainy conditions the tour is organized in 4 parts.

  • Comprehensive Introduction to Rodin live and main milestone works (front garden and yard of the museum)
  • Discovery of the life and works of Rodin in the Museum galleries.
  • Focus on Camille Claudel in the dedicated room of the Museum.
  • Comprehensive stroll among the sculptures of the museum’s beautiful park.
Photo of an path of the park of the Rodin Museum to illustrate the Rodin Museum private guided tour

Photo of a path of the Rodin Museum Park

Sited in Front of the Thinker Paris France

In front of The Thinker. Photo © Broaden Horizons.

Focus on Some Aspects of the Rodin Museum Tour Organisation

Discover the amazing Rodin art collection. Rodin owned a lot of paintings of his time (he was also a painter); his collection includes three Van Gogh, one Monet, and one Renoir paintings.

Rodin was also a fan of ancient Rome sculpture. Ancient sculpture profoundly influenced Rodin’s art. A room in the museum is dedicated to Rodin and antiquity.

Rodin was an opponent of the restoration of sculptures. He firmly believed that fragments convey emotion and have a strong power of expression.

This is how Rodin starts to work on fragments and even removes the heads and limbs from his figures. By doing so, Rodin created a new genre of contemporary art – “the headless, limbless torso.”

The Walking Man derives from the Saint John the Baptist and perfectly illustrates the limbless concept.

Rodin The Walking Man L' homme qui marche photographied by Eugene Druet 1907 1912

Rodin, The Walking Man photographed by Eugene Druet 1907-1912. Rodin had a strong link with photography, using this new art to promote and magnify his works

You will also learn about the beautiful mansion that houses the museum. Hôtel Biron is one of the most prestigious 18th-century boulevard Saint Germain district mansions.

During the century of light, the mansion was the residency of the Duchess du Maine, the wife of the Duc du Maine, the preferred bastard son of Louis the XIV.

Nowadays, its close neighbor, Hôtel Matignon, is nothing less than the siege of the French Prime Minister and government.

Whether you’re a first-time visitor or a long-time fan of Rodin’s work, our private tour is the perfect way to experience and enjoy the museum at our own pace.

Facade of the Hotel Biron - Musée Rodin

Rodin Museum Tour: Photo of the facade of the Hotel Biron. The Rodin Museum is also a famous and prestigious 18th-century mansion. Photo © Broaden-horizons.

Milestone Works to Understand Rodin

Man with the Broken Nose (1865)
The Age of Bronze (1877)
The Gates of Hell (1880-1917)
Bust of Victor Hugo (1883)
Eternal Springtime (1884)
Monument to the Burghers of Calais (1884-1889)
Monuments to Victor Hugo – Panthéon (1889-1890)
Monument to Balzac (1892-1898)
Monument to Victor Hugo – Palais Royal (1890-1901)

Auguste Rodin - Victor Hugo, De Trois Quarts - 1884

Rodin was also an excellent drawer. Rodin did many preparatory drawings for the 1883 bust of Victor Hugo.

The Divine Comedy a Key in Rodin’s Work

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (1321, Italy) was a never-ending source of inspiration for Rodin.

This pre-eminent medieval poem imagines the afterworld in three parts:

  • Hell (Inferno)
  • Purgatory (Purgatorio)
  • Paradise (Paradiso)

The Gates of Hell is Rodin’s transcription of Dante’s Inferno.

This is Rodin’s central work from which he will create numerous related sculptures such as Paolo and Francesca (The Kiss) or Ugolino and His Sons.

The Gates of Hell is a Rodin tribute and answer to Lorenzo Ghiberti‘s 15th-century Gates of Paradise at the Baptistery of St. John in Florence.

Allegorical Portrait of Dante late 16th century Florence nga

Rodin Museum Tour. Allegorical Portrait of Dante – late 16th century Florence – Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

The Kiss, Rodin px

Rodin Museum Tour. The Kiss, Rodin. 

A Moving Photo to Understand Rodin

Madame Bardey Rodin and Henriette, 31 rue Campagne Premiere Paris photo Druet - 1915 1916 -mt

Madame Bardey, Rodin and Henriette, 31 rue Campagne Première Paris photo by Eugène Druet, who was one of Rodin’s most prominent photographers – 1915 1916

The picture is highly informative because it shows Rodin working using clay. This is the base and the beginning of his creation process to form a three-dimensional sculpture before giving his practicians the mission to translate it into plaster and then into a bronze cast or a marble.

This photograph shows Jeanne Bardley (sculptor, pintor, and last Rodin pupil) completing a portrait bust of Rodin while the master is working on one of her daughters, Henriette.

Jeanne Bardley was one of the numerous Rodin’s Mistresses, as she was also his pupil; she has been compared to Camille Claudel.  Rodin was close enough to Jeanne Bardley to give her to organize the future Rodin Museum.

Henriette Jeanne Bardley’s daughter was Rodin’s last important model.

The photo was taken in 1915/1916, one or two years before Rodin’s death (1917). He is already a diminished old man, but he continues to work on his image for posterity, and photography is one of the tools he uses for it.

Three of your Guide favorit Artworks of the musée Rodin

The model of The Sleep for its fragile beauty. She Who Was the Helmet Maker’s Once-Beautiful Wife for the implacable description of the hardness of the human condition. The Mature Age (also named The Path of Life or Fatality) for the synthesis of the drama of Camile Claudel’s life.

Focus on She Who Was the Helmet Maker’s Once-Beautiful Wife

She Who Was the Helmet Maker’s Once-Beautiful Wife was named in French by Rodin Celle qui fût la belle heaulmière. Doing so, Rondin refers and answers to a famous French poet of the end of the Middle Ages, François Villon, who wrote in 1461 Les regrets de la belle heaulmière (The Lament of La Belle Heaulmiere). Extract:

« Ha ! vieillesse felonne et fière,
Pourquoy m’as si tost abatue ?
Qui me tient que je ne me fière,
Et qu’à ce coup je ne me tue ?

 “ Ah foul age, in your bitterness
And hate, why have you used me so ?
What hinders me in my duress
Ending this life so useless now ?

Translation by H. De Vere
Stacpoole, first published London, 1913. Full poeme accessible online: School of Advanced Study Page 44 (26) 

Rodin Museum Private Tour Reviews

Great experiences Musee Louvre & Rodin

We (four of us) took the 4-hr Friday night Louvre tour, then backed up with the Musee Rodin. Yves constructed two wonderful experiences for us. Yves is very passionate about you getting the best tour experience and a great communicator (and lovely bloke). His knowledge and stamina is amazing. We regard these tours as part of the high points of our 10-day stay in Paris.

Lindsay A

June 2023 - Tripadvisor, Queensland, Australia

More Rodin Related Places in Paris and Outside

The Musée Rodin in Meudon

In Meudon is the Villa des Brillants, Rodin’s home for the last 20 years of his life. There is the famous Plasters Gallery, where his sculptures are displayed in the successive states of their creation process.
In the park of the Villa des Brillants is Rodin’s tomb, surmounted by The Thinker.

The Musée Rodin in Meudon is at +/- half an hour from Paris by public transportation from Invalides.

The Musée Camille Claudel (Nogent-sur Seine)

The Musée Camille Claudel is in Nogent-sur-Marne a city at +/- 1 hour from Paris Gare de l’Est by train. Once there, add ten minutes on foot from the railway station to reach the museum.

During the Notre Dame to Marais walking tour, you can also see the building where Camille Claudel lived in île Saint-Louis before being sent to the asylum.

The Rodin Sculptures in the Streets of Paris

The Facade of the former Théâtre des Gobelins (73 avenue des Gobelins, nowadays the Fondation Jérôme Seydoux-Pathé) shows some of the first works of Rodin (1869) when he was working as an ornamentalist.

On the Hôtel de Ville de Paris facade, the Jean Le Rond d’Alembert Statue is still very classical.

The Balzac can be seen at 136 Boulevard Raspail (Metro Vavin). In the Jardin des Tuileries are Eve and The Kiss. A bronze cast of Victor Hugo and the Muses is at the
The intersection of Avenues Victor-Hugo and Henry Martin (16th arr.).

Rodin The Kiss Jardin des Tuileries Place de la Concorde in the background.

Rodin Museum Tour. Rodin The Kiss, Jardin des Tuileries with Place de la Concorde in the background. Photo © Broaden-horizons.

Thinks to Know Before Booking

Meeting Point

Close to the Rodin Museum entrance (exact place on the tour confirmation voucher), 77 rue de Varenne 75007 Paris.
Access: Bus: 69, 82, 87, 92. Métro Line 13 station Varenne or Invalides or Line 8 Invalides. RER C station Invalides.

Rodin Museum-Tour Attention Points

  • Prices do not include food, drinks, or any other extra services.
  • Tour duration and content are indicative. Visits may vary due to contingencies.
  • A private tour means a tour for you & your party only, not that Rodin Museum is privatized.
  • Skip-the-line ticket means a ticket bought online; nevertheless, you still have to stand in line with other Skip-the-line ticket bearers for security and sanitary controls.
  • Refund: if we cannot do the tour for any reason, we refund the tour, but never your museum tickets.

Book Your Private Tour of Rodin Museum

Caution the Rodin Museum Tour is sold without Museum tickets – It is your responsibility to buy your Rodin Museum tickets – Buy your Skip-the-line one-line Museum tickets once you have your Broaden-Horizons tour confirmation. You must have your Skip-the-line one-line tickets on the day of the tour. If you don’t have them, we won’t be able to do the tour, and you won’t be refunded.

 

Les cathédrales de France, The French Cathedrals, 1914 book by Auguste Rodin.  - met

Rodin wrote a book with 100 facsimile drawings: “Les cathédrales de France” (The French Cathedrals) in 1914. He was passionate about these Dark Ages stone naves. One of his most famous sculptures, designed in 1908, is called The Cathedral: the reunion of two right hands forms the nave.

The Cathedral Rodin 1908

Rodin, The Cathedral, 1908.