Who founded the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia?

Jules Mastbaum founded the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia.

Mastbaum was a Philadelphia businessman and art collector who developed a major collection of Rodin’s works in the early twentieth century. He intended the collection as a gift to the city and commissioned architect Paul Philippe Cret to design a museum building near the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

Mastbaum died in 1926, before the museum opened, but his widow, philanthropist and civic leader Louise K. Mastbaum, helped carry the project forward. The Rodin Museum opened in 1929 and became one of the largest collections of Rodin’s work outside Paris.

The museum is often associated with the Philadelphia Museum of Art because both institutions stand on the Parkway, but it was founded through Mastbaum’s bequest and collecting campaign. Its holdings include major works such as The Thinker and The Kiss.