Villa des Brillants, Historic museum and artist residence in Meudon, France

Villa des Brillants is a two-storey house in Meudon with a red brick and pale stone facade, a steep grey slate roof with three dormer windows and a central square tower, and a tall grey chimney on the right. Rodin added a gallery and a studio for his moulders and marble cutters. The garden holds basins, benches, stones and statues from his collection.

Rodin moved into the villa in late 1893 and bought it in December 1895 from the painter Delphine de Cool. He kept enlarging the estate, adding a gallery and a workshop for his moulders and marble cutters. In 1900 he built a pavilion for the Exposition universelle, rebuilt at Meudon in 1901. He married Rose Beuret there on 29 January 1917; she died on 14 February and he on 17 November.

Rodin called the villa his "petit château Louis XIII", while Rilke, lodged in a pavilion in 1905, did not find it beautiful. Rose Beuret kept horses Moca, Quinola and Rataplan, dogs Dora and Lulu, cows, hens, swans and a monkey. The couple married here on 29 January 1917; Rose died on 14 February and Rodin on 17 November.

The villa and its grounds are reached from the centre of Meudon, in the Hauts-de-Seine. The ground floor of the house opened to the public in 1953, and the villa was restored in 1997 to reconstruct its original interior. The garden holds the facade of the Château d'Issy, re-erected by Rodin between 1907 and 1910, and the tomb of Rodin and Rose Beuret, watched over by The Thinker.

What sets this place apart is that the artist's burial site lies beneath one of his most famous sculptures on the grounds. This arrangement makes the villa both his final workspace and his place of rest.