Rodin’s Egyptian art collection on exhibit at NYU

NYU’s Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) presents Rodin’s Egypt, an exhibition focused on the world-famous French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) and his robust collection of ancient Egyptian art. Opening on November 19, 2025, the exhibition brings together more than 60 objects that include Rodin’s sculptures and antiquities from his collection, illuminating the ways in which Rodin’s creative process was clearly inspired by these ancient works. 

Admission to the exhibition is free and open to the public during viewing hours on Wednesdays through Sundays from 11 a.m.–6 p.m. and Fridays from 11 a.m.–8 p.m. Free guided tours are offered on Fridays at 6 p.m. and on Saturdays at 11 a.m.

“Rodin’s Egypt is the product of a profound collaboration between colleagues in Paris and New York. The exhibition brings more than 60 objects from the Musée Rodin, which together illustrate the range of inspirations Rodin found in Egyptian material and the variety of his responses to it,” Greg Woolf, Leon Levy Director of NYU’s ISAW, said. “Through it, we invite visitors to juxtapose two aesthetics of corporeality, that of ancient Egypt and Rodin’s very different vision, and to think about the various kinds of connection represented by the dialogue between them.”

In the late nineteenth century, Egyptology became a subject of fascination across France, both in academia and in popular culture. Rodin’s own obsession emerged concurrently; however, he was less interested in ancient Egyptian history than in the ways in which Egyptian artists captured the essence of the human body through various materials and forms. Over his lifetime, Rodin collected over 1,000 ancient Egyptian objects, both purchased and gifted by his wide circle of art dealers, artists, friends, and benefactors. His collection was bequeathed to the French state in 1916 and is now housed in the Musée Rodin at his former home at Meudon, Paris.

Rodin’s Egypt places the artist’s own sculptures in dialogue with artifacts from his vast Egyptian collection, highlighting some of the direct influences of the latter on the former. For example, his Monument to Balzac speaks with the diminutive statuettes of shrouded Egyptian officials, while The Succubus finds kinship with Egyptian sphinx statues and bronze cat statuettes.

The chimeric nature of Egyptian bodies depicted in their art, especially those of monsters and gods, also resonated with Rodin’s own vision of the body. Rodin’s artistic process sometimes involved reusing and reworking transposable body parts made from plaster molds into entirely new bodies, resulting in amalgamations similar to Egyptian gods. He occasionally even incorporated Egyptian pieces into his own art, represented in the exhibition through female plaster figures emerging, sitting, and posing on Egyptian stone and ceramic vessels.

Rodin found the works of antiquity, and ancient Egypt in particular, to reflect the truest expression of nature, and saw his own work as part of an ongoing conversation on the human form. Rodin’s Egypt encourages visitors to explore how the works of ancient Egypt offer new perspectives on Rodin’s sculptures and vice versa. Due to Rodin’s considerable influence on the next generation of artists, a direct line can also be traced from these ancient works to the advent of modernity in European sculpture.

Curated by Bénédicte Garnier, curator at the Musée Rodin in Paris, Rodin’s Egypt features loans from the Musée Rodin, with additional items from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The exhibition and its accompanying catalogue were made possible by the generous support of the Leon Levy Foundation.

“This is the very first time that the masterpieces of Rodin’s Egyptian collection are exhibited in the United States,” Amélie Simier, Director of Musée Rodin, said. “Bénédicte Garnier has been working for more than 15 years to document, restore, and make accessible the collection. She collaborated with Dr. Roberta Casagrande-Kim, former Bernard and Lisa Selz Director of Exhibitions and Gallery Curator at ISAW to create a particularly illuminating journey. It took the curiosity and courage of ISAW to organize an exhibition that is both beautiful and demanding, reflecting the most cutting-edge research.”

A slate of multidisciplinary programming complements ISAW’s exhibition throughout its run and will be announced at a later date. Additionally, the show is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue with six thematic essays that explore Rodin’s interest in Egyptian art, its impact on his practice, the formation of his collection, and ancient Egyptian perspectives on the human body in dialogue with Rodin’s sculpture.

Visitors to ISAW are encouraged to access the gallery guide “Galleries @ ISAW” on Bloomberg Connects, a free app that features expanded stories and self-guided audio tours that explore Rodin’s sculptures and the Egyptian objects in this exhibition.

An exhibition website will also launch on November 19, 2025, delving deeper into the artifacts, places, and themes of Rodin’s Egypt.

Exhibition Information:

November 19, 2025–March 15, 2026

Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

15 E. 84th Street, New York NY 10028

Wednesdays–Sundays 11 a.m.–6 p.m., Fridays 11 a.m.–8 p.m.

About Institute for the Study of the Ancient World

ISAW is a center for advanced scholarly research and graduate education, which aims to encourage particularly the study of the economic, religious, political and cultural connections between ancient civilizations. It offers both doctoral and postdoctoral programs, with the aim of training a new generation of scholars who will enter the global academic community and become intellectual leaders.

In an effort to embrace a truly inclusive geographical scope while maintaining continuity and coherence, the Institute focuses on the shared and overlapping periods in the development of cultures and civilizations around the Mediterranean basin, and across central Asia to the Pacific Ocean. The approaches of anthropology, archaeology, geography, geology, history, economics, sociology, art history, digital humanities, and the history of science and technology are as integral to the enterprise as the study of texts, philosophy, and the analysis of artifacts.

ISAW’s public presence matches its vision, engaging both the public and scholars worldwide in the work and findings of its scholarly community. Exhibitions, public lectures, publications (both in print and online) and other programs reflect the Institute’s ideal of study that bridges disciplines and ancient peoples.

The creation of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University has its roots in the passion that Shelby White and Leon Levy had for the art and history of the ancient world, which led them to envision an Institute that would offer an unshuttered view of antiquity across vast stretches of time and place.

For more information, visit isaw.nyu.edu.