The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia is the legacy of theater mogul Jules Mastbaum and is modeled by the Musee Rodin in Paris, write Kaleah Mcilwain and Jacqueline London for NBC 10 Philadelphia.

Mastbaum became drawn to the work of master sculptor Auguste Rodin after visiting the French museum in 1924.

According to Jennifer Thompson, the Rodin Museum’s curator, Mastbuam carried a small piece out of the Musee Rodin in his pocket

“And that was the start of a collection that would be over 200 sculptures and about 600 drawings by Rodin,” said Thompson.

The admiration toward Rodin’s creations led Mastbaum to build a museum, as the Rodin Museum opened in 1929.

“We often think of ourselves in Philadelphia as being the little sister of our muse the Musee Rodin in Paris. Which is a much larger collection than we do…but we’re quite unique in that our building and the whole site was designed to show the work of Rodin,” Thompson said.

The Musee Rodin is an 18th century Parisian mansion where Rodin worked, had his studio, and modeled his masterpieces with clay.

Rodin spent the last years of his life creating the museum people see in Paris today.

Read more about Philadelphia’s Rodin Museum and how it came to be in NBC 10 Philadelphia. 

_____