The Thinker (Le Penseur) (2024)

Overview

The Thinker was originally conceived not in heroic isolation, but as part of Rodin's monumental Gates of Hell—a pair of bronze doors intended for a museum of decorative arts in Paris. Although the doors were never cast during the sculptor's lifetime, they nevertheless provided Rodin a rich source of ideas for individual figures and groups that he worked and reworked for the rest of his career.

The theme for Gates of Hell was taken from Dante's Inferno, and this figure, planned for the lintel on top, was initially conceived as the poet himself. His nudity, though, marked him as a universal embodiment of every poet—every creator—who draws new life from the imagination. In the late 1880s Rodin began to exhibit the figure, sometimes with the title Poet, other times as Poet/Thinker. By 1896, however, it had become simply The Thinker, a still more universal image that reveals in physical terms the mental effort and even anguish of creativity. As Rodin himself described: "What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes."

Rodin's Thinker exists today in many casts and sizes. More than fifty are known in this size—which is the size of Rodin's original handmade clay model.

More information on this object can be found in the Gallery publication European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century, which is available as a free PDF.

Inscription

incised on base at left side: A. Rodin; on lower left side of the interior of base: A. Rodin

Provenance

Purchased 1903 from the artist by Mr. and Mrs. John W. Simpson, New York;[1] gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] In the Musée Rodin Archives, Paris, there is a copy of a note Rodin sent to the Simpsons dated 1 September 1903, listing five works that he was sending. The Thinker was number 1 on the list.

Associated Names

Simpson, John W., Mrs.

Exhibition History

1905: Loan Collection of Paintings by Claude Monet and Eleven Sculptures by Auguste Rodin, The Copley Society of Boston, Copley Hall, 1905, no. 2.

1910: [Exhibition of drawings by Auguste-Rodin, photographs of Rodin and his work by Edward Steichen, and The Thinker], Photo-Secession Gallery, New York, 1910.

1946: Rodin: Sculpture, Drawings, Prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 7.

1965: Wax Sculptures by Degas, Sculptures and Drawings by Rodin, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965-1966, no cat.

1974: Nineteenth-Century Sculpture, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1974, unnumbered checklist.

1981: Rodin Rediscovered, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1981-1982, no. 261.

2001: Modern Art and America: Alfred Stieglitz and His New York Galleries, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001.

Bibliography

1889: Bartlett, Truman H. "Auguste Rodin, Sculptor." American Architect and Building News (19 January-15 June 1889): 224.

1889: Geffroy, Gustave. "Le Statuaire Rodin." Les Lettres et les Arts (1 September 1889). In Vilain, Jacques. Claude Monet-Auguste Rodin: Centennaire de l'exposition de 1889. Exh. cat., Musée Rodin, Paris, 1989: 62.

1904: Adam, Marcel. "Le Penseur." Gil Blas (7 July 1904).

1904: Mourey, Gabriel. "Le Penseur de Rodin offert par souscription publique au peuple de Paris." Les Arts et la vie (May 1904): 267-270.

1927: Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musée Rodin. Paris, 1927: 61.

1944: Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musée Rodin. 5th ed. Paris, 1944: 24-25.

1953: Gantner, Joseph. Rodin und Michelangelo. Vienna, 1953: 27-28.

1963: Alhadeff, Albert. "Michelangelo and the Early Rodin." The Art Bulletin 45, no. 4 (December 1963): 363-367.

1963: Elsen, Albert E. Rodin. New York, 1963: 52-54.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 168.

1967: Spear, Athena Tacha. Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1967: 52-53, 96-97.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 148, repro.

1976: Tanco*ck, John. The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin. Philadelphia, 1976: 111-121.

1977: de Caso, Jacques, and Patricia B. Sanders. Rodin's Sculpture: A Critical Study of the Spreckels Collection. San Francisco, 1977: 131-138.

1980: Elsen, Albert E. In Rodin's Studio. Ithaca, New York, 1980: figs. 19-22, pls. 23, 24, 165-166.

1980: The Romantics to Rodin: French Nineteenth-Century Sculpture from North American Collections. Peter Fusco and H.W. Janson, eds. Exh. cat. LACMA; Minn. Inst. of Art; Indianapolis Mus. of Art; Mus. of Fine Arts, Boston. New York, 1980: 334-335.

1981: Vincent, Clare. "Rodin at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A History of the Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Spring 1981): 4-5.

1983: Schmoll, J.A. Rodin--Studien: Persönlichkeit--Werke--Wirkung--Bibliographie. Munich, 1983: 54-58, 66-67, 192-193, 278-282.

1985: Elsen, Albert E. Rodin's Thinker and the Dilemmas of Modern Public Sculpture. New Haven and London, 1985.

1985: Elsen, Albert E. The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin. Stanford, 1985: 56-57.

1986: Jamison, Rosalyn Frankel. "Rodin and Hugo: The Nineteenth-Century Theme of Genius in "The Gates" and Related Works." Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1986: 69-122.

1988: Beausire, Alain. Quand Rodin Exposait. Paris, 1988: 99, 105, 156, 185, 195, 220, 242, 265, 266, 271, 286, 302, 307, 314, 315, 349, 366, 368.

1988: Fonsmark, Anne-Birgitte. Rodin: La collection du Brasseur Carl Jacobsen à la Glyptothèque. Copenhagen, 1988: 73-78.

1989: Vilain, Jacques. Claude Monet-Auguste Rodin: Centennaire de l'exposition de 1889. Exh. cat. Musée Rodin, Paris, 1989: 174-176.

1993: Butler, Ruth. Rodin. The Shape of Genius. New Haven and London, 1993: 423-435.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 208, repro.

1996: Kausch, Michael. Auguste Rodin: Eros und Leidenschaft. Exh. cat. Harrach Palace, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1996: 166-168.

1998: Porter, John R., and Yves Lacasse. Rodin à Quebec. Quebec, 1998: 78-83.

2000: Butler, Ruth, and Suzanne Glover Lindsay, with Alison Luchs, Douglas Lewis, Cynthia J. Mills, and Jeffrey Weidman. European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 321-326, color repro.

2000: National Gallery of Art Special Issue. Connaissance des Arts. Paris, 2000:62.

2015: Barbour, Daphne, and Lisha Deming Glinsman. "August Rodin's Lifetime Bronze Sculptures in the Simpson Collection." Facture: conservation, science, art history 2 (2015): 54-81, 55 unnumbered detail, figs. 16-18, 23.

2017: Dickerson III, C.D. "The Sculpture Collection: Shaping a Vision, Expanding a Legacy." National Gallery of Art Bulletin 56 (Spring 2017): 8, repro.

2023: De Margerie, Laure. French Sculpture: An American Passion. Ghent, 2023: 376.

2023: Glinsman, Lisha Deming, Daphne Barbour and Shelley Sturman. "When the Workshop is Fluid: Observations on Parisian Bronze Casting in the Early Twentieth Century." Daphne Barbour, ed., Facture. Conservation, Science, Art History 6 (2023): 171, 172 fig. 14, 173 fig. 15 (detail).