An invitation might read: Welcome to The Gates of Hell.  The Rodin Museum’s reopening July 13 reveals the largest collection of the French sculptor’s work outside of Paris.

Timothy Rub, Director and Chief Executive of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, read a letter of congratulations to the Rodin Museum from its sister museum Musée Rodin in Paris.  The renovation represents more than three years of work and 9 million dollars.

Located on Benjamin Franklin Parkway between the new Barnes Foundation and the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Rub sees the Rodin Museum as an important addition to museum row.  The collection had “lost some of its luster,” but now is restored to the original plan of 1929.

The center and front piece of the Museum is the grand work by Auguste Rodin (French 1840-1917).  The Gates of Hell took the artist 37 years to complete.  Many of the components of the Gates were used by the artist during that period to create stand-alone large sculptures.

The Thinker is an example of the figure near the top of the Gates which also stands alone in the familiar sculpture at the entrance to the museum’s garden.  The Thinker is said to be inspired by Dante Alighieri, and the Gates by Dante’s Inferno.

The restoration returns the Burghers of Calais to the outdoor garden.  The piece had been moved indoors to prevent damage from acid rain.  Inside, the size of the piece overwhelmed the center gallery.  Outside, expression of desperation of the burghers’ acceptance of their fate expands to fill the courtyard.

Restoration of the bronze pieces involved a process called chelation, and lasers to remove “various accretions.”  A stable patina was rebuilt and a protective coating applied. Andrew Lins, The Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Neubauer Chair of Conservation, said,  “These coatings are the result of significant research by our conservators and scientists who have developed new and long lasting treatments for outdoor sculpture.”

The Burghers is the last piece to be restored.  It is in the side courtyard on scaffolding so that it can be restored from the inside as well as the surface.  The work should be completed by September.

With the Burghers outside, the center gallery now has the space to show The Kiss. Rodin’s works express the physical declaration of passion be it love, despair of the burghers or the many torments in descent into hell.

The only work new to the Museum is The Three Shades located in the side garden.  The three identical male figures standing together demonstrate the artist’s ability to portray commanding gestures.

 

To find out more about the museum visit online: http://www.rodinmuseum.org/

Courtesy Images - Rodin Museum