Auguste Rodin

LIKE ALL good artists and musicians, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) poured his life experience into his work. The internationally acclaimed French sculptor, best known for "The Thinker," used the image of his life-long lover and companion Rose Beuret in the bust "Mignon" and in another piece, "Call to Arms. " But when Rodin wasn't utilizing Beuret's face, he sculpted the image of one of his "other" lovers, Camille Claudel, a fiery younger woman who went crazy. We love these steamy morsels and latch onto them because, frankly, we're clueless about other aspects of Rodin's life.

The Rodin Museum, which houses a collection by sculptor Auguste Rodin in its building on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, will close for eight months while central air-conditioning is installed, beginning Nov. 7. It is scheduled to reopen in July. The renovations will allow the museum to exhibit works on paper and other pieces that require stricter climate control, museum officials said. "It gives us more flexibility not only to exhibit the full breadth of our collection, but also to have the public enjoy it more during the summer months," said Gail Harrity, chief operating officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which administers the Rodin Museum.

"Camille Claudel" is the heartbreaking, true-life story of a turn-of-the- century Frenchwoman whose compulsive desire to excel as a sculptress convinced many that she was simply mad. Camille Claudel was, in the end, a victim of the social conventions of her day, a period when it was unthinkable for a woman to pursue a career with such determination. When she did gain public attention, it was not because she was a gifted sculptress in her own right but because she was the mistress, "student" and temporary muse of Auguste Rodin, who had already established himself as one of the great sculptors of all time.

Smoothly as a cleansed thought, Auguste Rodin's best-known sculpture settled into a temporary setting yesterday morning - indoors, contemplative and subdued, in the Great Stair Hall of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. For the next few months, The Thinker will ponder whatever a half-ton of bronze ponders when whisked from its usual home amid the hurly-burly of the Parkway, in front of the Rodin Museum. Is it an unsettling move? Discombobulating? "It's temporary," said Lindsay Warner, a spokeswoman for the museum, who refers to the iconic sculpture as "the old boy. " In advance of major restoration work on the Rodin Museum's facade and steps, The Thinker was carefully hoisted from its perch in June and trundled over to the Art Museum mothership for routine cleaning and protective waxing by museum conservators.

Cement trucks, piles of soil, pipes and leafless shrubs are piled high behind construction gates and strategically placed signs that announce the new home of the Barnes Foundation on Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 21st Street. While the museum's move from Merion to Philadelphia has been highly publicized, fewer people know about a similar project taking place right next door, at the Rodin Museum. The Rodin Museum houses some of French sculptor Auguste Rodin's greatest works, and has been open on the Parkway since 1929.

It's business and security as usual at the Rodin Museum today - no changes, despite the armed robbery late Wednesday of a 12-inch bronze head sculpted by the famed Frenchman, Auguste Rodin, and valued at more than $75,000. "The security procedures and equipment we have now are state-of-the-art. There will be no change in the system or procedure of security," said John Erickson, head of security for the museum at 22nd Street and the Parkway. The stolen work, "Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose," was taken by a man who - apparently to prove to security guards he wasn't brandishing a toy gun - fired a bullet into a wall shortly before the museum closed and then handcuffed the guards before leaving with the sculpture.

The Thinker these days has a lot on his mind. He's deep in thought worrying about his physical well-being. The effects of acid rain have one of the world's most famous sculptures under the weather. But "considering his age and the amount of time he's spent outdoors in Philadelphia, I would diagnose his state of health between fair and good," said Andrew Lins, director of objects conservation at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Art doctors are giving the 6-foot, 7-inch statue a physical checkup, which will include X-rays, so that it can be restored to its full grandeur.

The Rodin Museum will soon be getting back its famous stolen friend. Police last night found the undamaged bronze sculpture, "Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose," in the basement of a Center City apartment building wrapped in brown paper beneath a sewer line. The bust, by French sculptor Auguste Rodin, had been stolen from the museum last fall by a gunman who shot a hole in the museum wall, handcuffed together three guards and escaped with the sculpture worth $75,000. Stephen Shih, 24, a former trucker with an art student girlfriend, was charged last night in the theft.

They were ordinary merchants in the French port of Calais when the English army laid siege in the 14th century, but they became national heroes when they offered themselves as human sacrifices to save their city. In the end, King Edward III was so moved by the gesture that he released the captives and spared the town. The Burghers of Calais, as immortalized in Auguste Rodin's heart-rending eponymous sculpture, were liberated a second time Thursday - fittingly, Bastille Day - when Philadelphia officials formally dedicated their new home in the refurbished Rodin Museum gardens.

Originally, the trouble with Bibi's nose was simply that it was broken. Or "brutalized," as sculptor Auguste Rodin described it in 1863 when Bibi, an odd-job man of some reknown in Paris, came to pose for him. But long after it was immortalized in bronze, long after Bibi himself was no more, the mauling of le nez continued. The first time Melissa Meighan saw Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose at the Rodin Museum, the face had a rich ebony patina. The nose, however, was a brassy gold.

They were ordinary merchants in the French port of Calais when the English army laid siege in the 14th century, but they became national heroes when they offered themselves as human sacrifices to save their city. In the end, King Edward III was so moved by the gesture that he released the captives and spared the town. The Burghers of Calais, as immortalized in Auguste Rodin's heart-rending eponymous sculpture, were liberated a second time Thursday - fittingly, Bastille Day - when Philadelphia officials formally dedicated their new home in the refurbished Rodin Museum gardens.

Cement trucks, piles of soil, pipes and leafless shrubs are piled high behind construction gates and strategically placed signs that announce the new home of the Barnes Foundation on Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 21st Street. While the museum's move from Merion to Philadelphia has been highly publicized, fewer people know about a similar project taking place right next door, at the Rodin Museum. The Rodin Museum houses some of French sculptor Auguste Rodin's greatest works, and has been open on the Parkway since 1929.

Martha Erlebacher recalls the feedback her husband, sculptor Walter Erlebacher, heard in 1976 when his work, Jesus Breaking Bread, was unveiled outside the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul. The piece looked all wrong, some people complained, because, "everybody knows Jesus had a beard. " Shroud of Turin believers aside, how anybody, let alone "everybody" could have imagined they were correct about the beard is a mystery, says Martha Erlebacher, a painter in her own right, speaking on behalf of her husband who died in 1991.

Smoothly as a cleansed thought, Auguste Rodin's best-known sculpture settled into a temporary setting yesterday morning - indoors, contemplative and subdued, in the Great Stair Hall of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. For the next few months, The Thinker will ponder whatever a half-ton of bronze ponders when whisked from its usual home amid the hurly-burly of the Parkway, in front of the Rodin Museum. Is it an unsettling move? Discombobulating? "It's temporary," said Lindsay Warner, a spokeswoman for the museum, who refers to the iconic sculpture as "the old boy. " In advance of major restoration work on the Rodin Museum's facade and steps, The Thinker was carefully hoisted from its perch in June and trundled over to the Art Museum mothership for routine cleaning and protective waxing by museum conservators.

LIKE ALL good artists and musicians, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) poured his life experience into his work. The internationally acclaimed French sculptor, best known for "The Thinker," used the image of his life-long lover and companion Rose Beuret in the bust "Mignon" and in another piece, "Call to Arms. " But when Rodin wasn't utilizing Beuret's face, he sculpted the image of one of his "other" lovers, Camille Claudel, a fiery younger woman who went crazy. We love these steamy morsels and latch onto them because, frankly, we're clueless about other aspects of Rodin's life.

The Rodin Museum on the Parkway doesn't usually present special exhibitions, but periodically a good reason to do so presents itself. The museum's 75th anniversary this year has brought forth "Echoes," which opens tomorrow. The show of about 20 sculptures in bronze, marble and plaster serves two purposes: It illuminates Auguste Rodin's creative thinking while also calling attention to a project to revitalize the museum property between 21st and 22d Streets. First, the project.

Originally, the trouble with Bibi's nose was simply that it was broken. Or "brutalized," as sculptor Auguste Rodin described it in 1863 when Bibi, an odd-job man of some reknown in Paris, came to pose for him. But long after it was immortalized in bronze, long after Bibi himself was no more, the mauling of le nez continued. The first time Melissa Meighan saw Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose at the Rodin Museum, the face had a rich ebony patina. The nose, however, was a brassy gold.

Joe Haro gave a talk about one of his best friends last week, and nearly 50 people sat on folding chairs in a darkened room and listened intently. Incidentally, his best friend has been dead for more than 80 years, and Haro has never met him. But the sculpture of Auguste Rodin is so powerful to Haro that he has dedicated a good portion of his life to studying Rodin's work and teaching others about it. This particular educational endeavor, held at the Markheim Art Center, was a fledgling effort of the Haddonfield Society of the Visual Arts, a group formed recently to promote the appreciation of painting, sculpture and other art forms.

The Rodin Museum, which houses a collection by sculptor Auguste Rodin in its building on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, will close for eight months while central air-conditioning is installed, beginning Nov. 7. It is scheduled to reopen in July. The renovations will allow the museum to exhibit works on paper and other pieces that require stricter climate control, museum officials said. "It gives us more flexibility not only to exhibit the full breadth of our collection, but also to have the public enjoy it more during the summer months," said Gail Harrity, chief operating officer of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which administers the Rodin Museum.

For nearly 63 years, Auguste Rodin's bronze The Thinker had perched outside the Rodin Museum on Benjamin Franklin Parkway, dying by millimeters. Acid rain and fog dissolved his skin while turning it green, and diesel trucks and buses dusted him morning and night with clouds of noxious hydrocarbons, creating disfiguring zebralike streaks over his gloriously naked musculature. Tourists posed on his head for pictures, rubbing his thigh raw where they stepped up, and his scalp down to the bone where they sat. Pigeons voided on his broad, heroically modeled deltoids.