Gay Philadelphia is home to some amazing museums. We visited one of them while we were there – the Rodin (pronounced “roh-daan”) museum.
Most of us are familiar with Rodin’s “The Thinker” – a seated man with his head on his fist, deep in thought. When we found out that “The Thinker” was there at the Philadelphia Rodin Museum, we were excited. How often do you get to see such an iconic piece of art first-hand?
Then we learned a little more about the casting process.
A sculptor like Rodin makes the original mold in his studio, and then creates or licenses a certain number of copies, or “casts”, that can be made with it. The Philadelphia museum opened in 1929, and many of the sculptures were cast around that date.
But Auguste Rodin died in 1917.
So most of the works we saw were actually made by others, using the molds Rodin created.
It’s strange, thinking that the actual art in front of you was not created by the man whose name is on it. It’s also strange knowing it’s not the only copy.
“The Thinker”, for instance, comes in several sizes. The largest of these has 28 copies scattered around the world. And there are more of the smaller version.
When you go to see the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, you are seeing the one and only copy of DaVinci’s masterpiece. It’s a singular experience, by nature.
Still, seeing so many of Rodin’s casts in one place is an amazing thing – it’s the second largest collection of his work, outside of Paris.
