Beginning of the artistic testament of Rodin, this sentence could be included in the pediment of its Museum. It is indeed first for young artists that the sculptor, adored by the whole of Europe, continued stubbornly his project to found a museum dedicated to his work. His ambition was to see: Rodin was not a man of speeches and conferences. Young sculptors who flocked to his Studio around 1900, he proposed not not teaching, but a time to work with him. Give to see the sculpture, give him any place, allow the public to immerse themselves in this particular apprehension of the world, such is the unchanged mission today the Musée Rodin, of its scientific and cultural policy, and even its economic model.

MUSEOGRAPHY AND NEW CLASSROOMS: THE RENEWED LOOK

The historic link between the collection and the Hôtel Biron is the essence of the soul of the Museum; renovating the space, it was find this link without upsetting the soul. The course aims to present the work of Rodin in his deployment. It is not a 'new Rodin", but a look renewed on the artist and his work.

The scientific work of the past few decades have allowed to exhume and understanding number of original plasters, out reserves for the occasion. The visitor finds many unpublished, a vision more complete, more coherent, more accessible by creating rodinienne, putting in value and context objects according to a gait more readable. Thus, after a chronological presentation on the ground floor with a bathroom restoring the hotel Biron of the time of Rodin, the floor allows to enter more in depth dimension aesthetics (Symbolist room) or history (the pavillon de L'alma in 1900), in the process of creating (rooms on the Assembly, fragmentation, enlargement). One of the oval salons confronts the practice of sculpture with Rodin and his activity of passionate collector of Antiques, in the spirit of a curiosity cabinet.

All the work, all of the work according to its multiple facets, takes place according to a continuous and smoother wandering through the reinstatement of a room won over former offices.

This effort aims to reconnect with the original wish of Rodin, its history and its desire: allow each immersion into the world of his sculpture, sculpture.

PACE'S VISIT: THE NEW COURSE

The project develops a circuit looping, continuous and accessible to persons with reduced mobility on each level. The visitor is encouraged to move from one room to the other through the implementation of works in perspective, but staggered to allow unobstructed passage and the suite from room to room. From the principle of accommodation common to all rooms, by alternating density and positioningbetween order and disorder.each space has a dominant which varies from one room to the other.

These variations of rhythms would both preserve the spirit and the specificity of the Museum, a private residence avoiding chemical regularity. This is to develop a course that meets the places, with their qualities and their defects. A care has been devoted to the preservation of the atmosphere of visit so special at the hotel Biron in preserving an important part of its sensible qualities such as relationships outside: natural light, views and reflections, intimacy.

NEW ROOM: RODIN AT THE BIRON HOTEL

Reconstituée d’après des photographies d’époque, This room evokes the presence of Rodin in the hotel Biron. Artist view the place in 1908 and in fact a space exhibition and reception of collectors and models. The screen with vegetal decoration dating from the end of the 19th century refers to the sittings models. On harnesses wooden, were exposed busts modeled by Rodin, but also a Virgin and childdated from the 14th century. Crates of raw wood served as bases for Roman torsos. The room was furnished in a heterogeneous way, a small plated Cabinet Secretary mahogany, Louis-Philippe style and a corner Cabinet painted in white, dating from the beginning of the 19th century, on which you could see vases Greeks, or Chinese. On the ground, as in a workshop, Rodin had asked two Japanese incense burners in bronze dating from the 19th century.

CAMILLE CLAUDEL

The idea to dedicate a room of the Museum to the work of Camille Claudel is suggested at Rodin by the journalist and art critic Mathias Morhardt, fervent admirer of the artist. The room sees the day until 1952 when Paul Claudel Museum offers four major works of his sister: Vertumnus and Pomona, two versions of the mature age, and Clotho. The collection gradually grew through donations and acquisitions made by the Museum.

NEW ROOM, RODIN AND THE ANCIENT

"The ancient is my youth" said Rodin, meaning that his passion for the ancient was a great source of inspiration. Rodin is a hard antique collector. From 1893, he buys thousands of fragments of Greek, Roman and Egyptian sculptures, accompanying his artistic reflection. In Meudon as in Paris, Rodin exposes these objects on crates, harnesses or columns in plaster, in the middle of his own works.

One hundred twenty-three antiques of Rodin collection emerged from reserves to take place in the penultimate room of course and be faced with a key of Rodin sculpture, theMan walking, qui fait écho aux figures de l’Antiquité mutilées par le temps. Sur les murs, est accrochée une accumulation de têtes, de torses, de pieds et de mains d’époque gréco-romaine. De grands torses égyptiens ou romains, posés sur des gaines, soulignent le rythme des pilastres. Sur une sellette ancienne, Triton and Nereid Rodin is surrounded by Roman marbles, replicating installation shown at the hotel Biron in the lifetime of the artist. A multitude of small Antiques from all sources and all materials illustrate in a showcase the versatility of the collector.

THE RETURN OF THE PAINTING IN BIRON

Parmi les milliers d’objets légués par Rodin, figurent environ 200 tableaux : le sculpteur en avait acheté quelques-uns, comme les toiles de Van Gogh, mais pour beaucoup il s’agit d’échanges qu’il fit avec des amis peintres : le plus célèbre à cet égard est sans doute le tableau de Monet, Belle-île. These works show us something of the taste of Rodin, and human or stylistic proximities that he talked with his contemporaries. At the reopening of Biron, 50 paintings will be part of the snap. They are mostly of rediscoveries, either because they have been the subject of a major restoration, as The Théâtre de Belleville, either because they had hardly ever been out of reserves. They are presented throughout the course but also in the stairwell: a first step before the publication of the catalogue of the paintings.

A NEW HALL, THE GALLERY OF GRAPHIC ARTS

On the first floor of the Museum, the Museum created a new space: the Gallery of graphic art. This place largely powered by a simplified hanging system allows to increase the readability of funds very rich and often unknown. These are nearly 8000 drawings, over 1000 engravings, 11 000 photographs and 60 000 archival heritage that still illuminate the aesthetics of Rodin in a different and complementary way. This central gallery is devoted to from small exposures records which will provide a place for these funds. Related or not with the programming of large temporary exhibitions, with the news of the Museum or on the occasion of celebrations, they are a chance to renew our gaze turning, with the attention to detail, themes varied, little expected, summoning as many contemporaries of the artist as contemporary artists.

The first presentation, on the occasion of the reopening, is devoted to recent acquisitions of the Museum: drawings, sculptures, photographs and manuscripts acquired between 2006 and 2015.