Rodin Museum

The Rodin Museum is the most rewarding small museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and it costs as much or as little as you want. Opened in 1929 as a gift to the city from the movie-theater magnate Jules Mastbaum, it holds the largest collection of Auguste Rodin's work outside France, which is why Philadelphians call it Paris on the Parkway. The setting is half the experience: a small, elegant Beaux-Arts pavilion designed by Paul Cret and Jacques Gréber, entered through a reproduction of the facade Rodin built at his home at Meudon, and approached through a formal garden that was carefully restored in a multi-year project begun in 2012 to recover the original design. A bronze cast of The Thinker sits in the entry courtyard, brooding over Parkway traffic, and just inside the gate, The Gates of Hell, Rodin's monumental doorway inspired by Dante, swarms with figures that grew into many of his most famous independent works. In the garden and galleries you will find The Burghers of Calais, Eternal Springtime and dozens of bronzes, marbles, plasters and studies that show how Rodin worked, from hands and fragments to finished monuments. The museum is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art, about half a mile up the Parkway. Admission is by suggested donation at the door, and opening days have been limited in recent seasons, typically Friday through Monday, so check before you go; the garden is a pleasant stop even when the galleries are closed. Allow forty-five minutes to an hour. It is accessible, with assistive listening systems available.

What to look at: give The Gates of Hell real time. Rodin worked on it for decades, and you can find early versions of The Thinker, The Kiss and other figures embedded in its surface, which makes it a map of his imagination. Inside, the galleries follow his evolution from academic training to the rough, expressive modeling that made him the bridge between nineteenth-century sculpture and modern art. The plaster studies and fragments are as revealing as the bronzes, showing how he assembled figures from separately modeled parts. Light through the tall windows changes the mood of the main hall through the day, and the space rarely feels crowded. The Burghers of Calais rewards walking all the way around it: Rodin refused to put the six civic heroes on a tall pedestal, setting them close to the viewer's level so their exhaustion and doubt read as human rather than heroic, an approach that scandalized the city that commissioned it and now feels utterly modern. Eternal Springtime, by contrast, shows the sensual, flowing side of his work that made him famous with collectors in his lifetime.

Visit craft: confirm the opening days and hours on the museum's site, since they have changed in recent seasons. Pay what you can at the door. Combine it with the Philadelphia Museum of Art, whose general admission is separate, or with the Barnes Foundation, which is a few minutes' walk across the Parkway. In summer, the garden has hosted a seasonal outdoor bar on some evenings, making it one of the most charming places on the Parkway to end a museum day, but schedules vary year to year.

Pairing and fit: the museum is at 2151 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, between the Barnes and the art museum, so it slots naturally into a Parkway art day: the Barnes in the morning, lunch, the Rodin, then the art museum and the Rocky Steps at sunset. It suits art lovers, couples looking for a romantic, uncrowded hour, and anyone who wants a world-class museum experience on a tight budget.