Monsieur Rodin

Something to note if you should ever make a trip to Paris in the near(ish) future: the first Sunday of every month means free entry to most of the big museums in the Paris area. We're slowly working our way through them all, 1 month at a time. This winter we checked off the Louvre and Musée D'Orsay, today we visited the Rodin museum.

Auguste Rodin was alive at the turn of the 20th century, and is considered by many to be the founder (father maybe?) of modern sculpture. Even if you're not a history art nerd like my wife, you'll recognize some of his stuff. I'm not at all an art guy, and so I feel totally unqualified to say this, but I did feel that the sculptures I saw of Mr Rodin really captured emotion, inner struggles, and feeling unlike any I'd ever seen before. Most of his people also had really big hands. In Africa we were good friends with some professional sculptors, and many of their works were incredibly intricate and beautiful. A lot of Rodin's work was almost less polished, less detailed than those our friends made, but man could he make a piece of rock look like it was alive and actually... thinking!

That's the most recognized sculpture in the world, "The Thinker."
And that's me. Not thinking. But imitating. Poorly.

The tower in the foreground is a work of Rodin's. I think.
I didn't read the information, so I couldn't really tell you.
The tower in the background is the work of Eiffel.
And lots of steelworkers.

I am the keymaster. Are you the gatekeeper?

"The Gates of Hell."
Scary!

A pudgy dude who's quite comfortable in his own skin. Or rock.
It's good to see that.