Rodin’s Thinker (1906) is a masterpiece of human contemplation. What is he really thinking about? The Louvre is the largest museum in the western world. Its three wings and pyramid entrance cover more than a Paris city block on the Right Bank of the Seine River. Since we were time–limited, my wonderful wife Linda decided we would pick out only a few works of art to see since we had both visited it before in previous lives. She chose

Venus de Milo, the Winged

Victory of Samothrace, and da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. Even at that it took three hours to squeeze in among the tourists (mostly Japanese and tattooed Europeans taking photos with cell phones).

Our next museum was one neither of us had seen, The Rodin Museum. We grabbed a sandwich at an outdoor café, walked along the river, crossed the Alexander III bridge, passed Napoleon’s Tomb, and arrived at the quaint little museum at three o’clock.

Yes, my dear friends, Venus de Milo does have a back side. The Greeks pictured their gods in perfect human form, front and back. August Rodin (1840– 1917) is famous for his

Thinker, but we were fascinated with his other work, too. His stone and bronze statues in Rodin’s converted two–story home portray the human body as harshly ugly and smoothly sensual. The contrast was shocking. I found it difficult to take

my eyes off them. The

Thinker , on the other hand, was in the garden pondering the problems of the world.

That night we discussed the wonders we had seen and planned our next day trip to Versailles over plats du jour and glasses of Bourdeaux wine at the Café du Marché in our Rue Cler neighborhood. A measly $100.

Rodin also created this bust. Why is he screaming? (Next week:

The Palace of Versailles)

Rodin created this beautiful set of hands, caressing and reaching, that Linda adored.
The Winged Victory, a woman with wings on the prow of a ship, was created to commemorate a naval victory in 190 B.C.
Warner takes a photo of a Japanese tourist taking a photo of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre.