(“The Thinker” sits in front of the main entrance to the Rodin Museum, near 22nd and the Parkway. Credit: Mike Dunn)

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The Rodin Museum at 22nd and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway has re-opened after a lengthy renovation.

The museum’s Joe Rishel says this jewel on Museum Row is a beautiful, quiet space with more than 300 Rodin pieces, including “The Thinker,” “The Kiss” and “The Gates of Hell.”

“[There are] works in plaster, some in terra cotta…the hands-on thing with his fingerprints on them…which are done into working plasters that then turn into bronzes. The majority are bronzes and marbles,” explains Rishel.

He adds that Rodin was a passionate artist who was always striving to do his best work and a genius at marketing.

“He was a very intense, spiritual man. He had a certain kind of charm and effect on people…that kind of a bombastic, swooping up, huge appetite kind of thing,” Rishel says.

The museum is closed on Tuesdays. Find out more at www.rodinmuseum.org.