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Wow Place #259: Musee Rodin, Paris

Maya Angelou once famously wrote: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

It strikes me that this is true for travel as well. Although there are myriad places in the world that we can’t help but admire, the places we truly remember are the ones that made us feel a strong emotion. Take Paris for example. I *loved* seeing the Arc de Triomphe, the Pompidou Center, and Sacre Coeur Basilica. I greatly enjoyed visiting Notre Dame, touring the Louvre and walking along the Seine. Beautiful, beautiful experiences all of them. But none of them touched my heart the way the Musee Rodin did.

Split into two sites, the Rodin Museum was opened in 1919 to display the works of French sculptor Auguste Rodin. One of its sites is in central Paris at the Hotel Biron; the other is just outside the city at Rodin’s old home, the Villa des Brillants, at Haut-de-Seine. The total collection includes 6,600 sculptures, 8,000 drawings, 8,000 old photographs and 7,000 objets d’art. One of the most popular museums in Paris, the Musee Rodin draws over 700,000 visitors annually.

Known mostly for his sculptures, Rodin’s works aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. When you view, say, a Renaissance-era statue like Michelangelo’s David, you think, “Wow, that looks pretty realistic…if David was 13 feet tall and spent a LOT of time in the gym.” By contrast, Rodin’s sculpture are more “expressionistic” in nature, breaking the rules of academic convention and classical idealism. Although naturalistic in concept, Rodin’s statues and sculptures are vigorously modelled to convey intense human emotions: love, agony, ecstasy or grief. Interestingly, the artist was once, himself, a monk. Tormented by repeated artistic rejection and the grief he felt over his sister’s death, Rodin abandoned art in 1862 to become Brother Augustin in the Order of the Blessed Sacrament. Thankfully for future art lovers, he quit the order when his family recognized his talent and insisted he pursue an artistic path.

When it comes to the sculptures in the collection, there are too many to count: The Thinker, The Kiss, The Walking Man, The Age of Bronze. The list goes on and on. The ones that move me the most, however, are his studies of human hands – in particular, one called “The Cathedral.” It touches me every time I look at it. Apparently, Rodin had a lifelong fascination not only with hands but with cathedrals, especially the pointed arches of Gothic churches. The Cathedral strikes me as enormously poignant somehow, with its strong feeling of calmness, faith and protection. (Interestingly, the hands presumably come from different bodies!)

The next time you’re in Paris, by all means check out the Musee Rodin, with its two sites, it fabulous collection of art, and its lovely garden and grounds. Love it or hate, I’m betting you’ll find it unforgettable.

(As people get older, they often start talking about “What will be my legacy?” This is another way of saying, “What will I be remembered for?” If Maya Angelou is to be trusted, perhaps we should be less concerned with “What did I do?” and more with “How did I treat people?” How are you making the people around you feel? Happy? Inspired? Appreciated? Of course, the flipside is true as well. If you stream roll people and make them feel crappy, you will certainly be remembered for that as well. What would you like YOUR legacy to be?)