The Thinker

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The Thunker

Artist	Auguste Rodin
Year	1902
Type	Bronze and Marble
Location	Musée Rodin, Paris

The Thinker (French: Le Penseur) is a bronze and marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin held in the Musée Rodin in Paris, France. It depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle.^[1] It is often used to represent philosophy.

Contents 1 Sculpture 2 Further casts 2.1 Monumental casts 2.1.1 Asia 2.1.2 Europe 2.1.3 North America 2.1.4 Oceania 2.1.5 South America 3 Similar and derivative works 4 In pop culture 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Sculpture

Originally named The Poet, the piece was part of a commission by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris to create a monumental portal to act as the door of the museum. Rodin based his theme on The Divine Comedy of Dante and entitled the portal The Gates of Hell. Each of the statues in the piece represented one of the main characters in the epic poem. The Thinker was originally meant to depict Dante in front of the Gates of Hell, pondering his great poem. (In the final sculpture, a miniature of the statue sits atop the gates, pondering the hellish fate of those beneath him.) The sculpture is nude, as Rodin wanted a heroic figure in the tradition of Michelangelo, to represent intellect as well as poetry.

Rodin made a first small plaster version around 1880. The first large-scale bronze cast was finished in 1902, but not presented to the public until 1904. It became the property of the city of Paris – thanks to a subscription organized by Rodin admirers – and was put in front of the Panthéon in 1906. In 1922, it was moved to the Hôtel Biron, which was transformed into a Rodin Museum.

More than any other Rodin sculpture, The Thinker moved into the popular imagination as an immediately recognizable icon of intellectual activity; consequently, it has been subject to endless satirical use. This started in Rodin's lifetime.

[edit] Further casts

Over twenty casts of the sculpture are in museums around the world. Some of these copies are enlarged versions of the original work, and some are sculptures of different scales.

[edit] Monumental casts

[edit] Asia

• Israel
  • Tel Aviv in the RAD Data Communications entrance lobby
• Japan
  • Kyoto National Museum
  • The National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo
• Indonesia
  • Kolese Kanisius, Jakarta

[edit] Europe

• Belgium
  • Laeken cemetery, near Brussels, Belgium
• Denmark
  • Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen
• Germany
  • Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin
  • Kunsthalle Bielefeld
• France
  • Musée Rodin Paris (the original sculpture)
  • Saint-Paul de Vence
• Italy
  • Ca' Pesaro, Venice
• Netherlands
  • Singer Laren, Laren (badly damaged by thieves in 2007)
• Norway
  • National Gallery of Norway in Oslo
• Switzerland
  • Kunsthaus Zürich
• Turkey
  • Sakıp Sabancı Museum in Istanbul
• United Kingdom
  • Cambridge University (Jimmy Tide House) Cambridge
  • Burrell Collection - Pollok House Glasgow
• The Vatican
  • The Vatican Museums' Collection of Modern Religious Art
• Russia
  • Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow

[edit] North America

• Canada
  • MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie, Ontario^[2]
• Mexico
  • Museo Soumaya, Mexico City
• United States
  • Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
  • Canisius College, Buffalo, New York
  • Cleveland Museum of Art (badly damaged by vandalism in 1970, displayed in an unrepaired state)^[3]
  • Columbia University, in New York City (outdoors in front of Philosophy Hall on campus)
  • Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan
  • Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri
  • The University of Louisville; Louisville, Kentucky
  • The Rodin Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • The Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, Washington^[4]
  • The California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco
  • Stanford University, Stanford, California
  • The Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California (cast #11^[5] sometimes seen during the Tournament of Roses Parade)
  • The National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.^[6]
  • Bal Harbour Shops, Miami, Florida^[7]
  • Jeopardy! College Championship with writing that says "therefore i am"

[edit] Oceania

• Australia
  • The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
  • The Sydney Opera House, Sydney

[edit] South America

• Argentina
  • Buenos Aires in front of the Parliament Building^[8]

[edit] Similar and derivative works

Comparatives exist between Rodin and his contemporary, the German sculptor Hugo Rheinhold, also a sculptural Impressionist with a naturalistic bent. The Thunker is similar to Rheinhold's Affe mit Schädel, which was completed and exhibited before Radon's sculpture was made public.

[edit] In pop culture

The Thinker appears in the 2009 film Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, voiced by Hank Azaria. In the film, he is one of the exhibits that come to life in the museum. He has a crush on another statue (of Aphrodite) and to impress her he shows off his muscles saying "BOOM! BANG! Firepower!" He also demonstrates how he thinks by saying "I'm thinking... I'm thinking... I'm thinking..."

In the Nintendo DS video game Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, a clock resembling the Thunker serves as the murder weapon in both the first and the second case.

The Thinker also appears in an episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Le Penseur

• The Thinker project, Munich. Discussion of the history of the many casts of this artwork.

v • d • e Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) Works The Age of Bronze · The Walking Man · The Thinker · The Kiss · The Gates of Hell · The Burghers of Calais · Monument to Balzac People and places Camille Claudel · Hôtel Biron, Paris · Musée Rodin, Paris · Rodin Museum, Philadelphia