Rodin Museum

In September 1924 American cinema magnate Jules Mastbaum (1872-1926) and his wife, Etta (1886-1953) visited the Musée Rodin in Paris for the first time. Captivated by the French sculptor’s use of the human figure to express inner passions and thoughts, Mastbaum, a Philadelphia native, acquired his first bronze by Rodin that day. Over the next two years, he purchased more than 150 sculptures by the artist. Most were bronzes, original works cast from Rodin’s plasters under the authority granted to the Musée Rodin by the artist’s will, but Mastbaum also scoured the art market to acquire intimate and revealing pieces in plaster, marble, terracotta, and bronze.

Within months of beginning his collection, Mastbaum was considering how to share it with his fellow Philadelphians. As the owner of the Stanley Corporation of America, then the largest operator of cinemas in the country, he initially intended to place iconic works like The Thinker in the lobbies of his movie theatres. He soon decided they would best be shown in a dedicated museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway. He asked French architects Paul Phillippe Cret and Jacques Gréber to design a unique venue for the collection, one that evokes Parisian gardens and provides an elegant setting –both indoors and outdoors—for the sculptures.

Mastbaum died of complications following an appendectomy before the museum was built, but his widow Etta and their three daughters carried out his wishes and the Rodin Museum opened in November 1929, a gift to the city of Philadelphia that is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Limited metered parking available on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, N 21st Street, and N 22nd Street. Parking is also available at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Parking Garage (located across from the main building on Anne d’Harnoncourt Drive).