Olivia Hanna

At the beautiful sculpture garden of the Musee Rodin I saw the most amazing masterpieces I have ever seen. Rodin seemed to create a real human out of his materials. It was as if an actual person was standing there in front of me. Every sculpture showed movement even if it was meant to be still. The life-sized figures had a calming effect; probably because of their precise detail they hush their viewers leaving them in awe. The busts were magnificent; some carved out of marble and plaster, some made of bronze. Rodin captured every little detail in a person such as a small wrinkle or a vein. Each bust was created in a short amount of time, some taking only days.

I learned so much about Rodin. My favorite piece of information was that Rodin was one of the most famous people to cast detailed bronze sculptures using the method of creating an armature, adding clay, and making a plaster mold. By doing this he would create a figure that looked just like a living person, which made critics think he put the clay over a real person’s arm or leg. One of the first things I noticed was that many small sculptures on the Gates of Hell are large sculptures such as the Thinker and The Three Shades. Rodin exhibited the smaller sculptures before putting them on the Gates of Hell and started making the large ones around 1894. The Thinker is extremely tall on large platforms of stone and is probably the most visited place at the Musee Rodin. I was astonished when I learned that Rodin was buried under the Thinker. This was my favorite place in Paris and it was definitely the most memorable.