The Thinker | artble.com The Thinker Auguste Rodin The Thinker was originally part of the compositional piece Rodin created as an entranceway for the proposed Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. This piece, known as The Gates of Hell, is based on the 16th century epic poem, The Divine Comedy by Dante. Many of Rodin's most famous works came out of this piece and The Thinker was originally intended to sit at the top of the door way and represent Dante, as he composed the poem. For this reason The Thinker was originally known as The Poet but as this piece began to gain precedence over The Gates of Hell, it became known as The Thinker and is today a commonly recognized symbol of philosophy and learning. During its use as a public monument in Paris from 1906 onwards, The Thinker became known as a symbol of the socialist movement in France during a time of political and social turmoil. The Thinker Inspirations Michelangelo There are several inspirations which influenced Rodin's creation of The Thinker. The foremost must be the work of Dante, the poet whom the figure was originally supposed to represent.

Stylistically the sculpture resembles the heroes of Michelangelo and the nude young men whom Rodin felt best to represent in a romantic and creative light. Dante Alighieri: Dante Alighieri wrote his epic poem The Divine Comedy between 1308 and 1321 and since its publication the literary work has served as inspiration for countless arts, writers and sculptors. The Divine Comedy follows a dream in which the author enters the after-life. Dante describes three different states, Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. This work consumed most of Dante's life and he died the year it was completed. The popularity of the poem at the end of the 19th century could well have been the reason Rodin chose this subject as the theme of many of his sculptures, including The Thinker and The Kiss. Michelangelo: Rodin presented The Thinker nude as with many of his works and the similarities between this type of style and that of Renaissance masters such as Michelangelo is clear to see. To Rodin there was something poetic about the heroic nude and that type of heresy and romanticism was what the artist wanted to capture in his sculpture.

Hugo Rheinhold: Hugo Rheinhold was a contemporary of Rodin and an Impressionist sculptor from Germany. Rheinhold produced and exhibited his Affe mit Schadel before The Thinker was created and this work may well have influenced Rodin. Both artists shared an appreciation of natural, realistic compositions. The Thinker Analysis The Thinker Auguste Rodin As one of Auguste Rodin's most recognized works The Thinker is surprisingly simple in design and is possibly one of the easiest of Rodin's pieces to understand. Subject Matter: Originally supposed to represent Dante, the poet, once this piece was enlarged and created as a sculpture within its own right the meaning behind it became more ambiguous. Commonly thought to represent knowledge or the attainment of knowledge, Rodin himself always referred to this piece as The Poet. Composition: The position which the contemplative figure finds himself in is one of deep thought and concentration. The arched back and curled hand resting under the chin are signs of study that would have been hard to capture were this figure standing up. This also allows for the figure's muscular back and broad shoulders to be fully defined, the powerful physique of the sitter reflecting the high esteem in which Rodin held poets like Dante.

Tone and Mood elicited: The mood of this piece is one of calm. Rodin captures the very human emotion of The Thinker which may go some way as to explain how this piece became one of the artist's most famous works. Methods: Although Rodin often used a model for many of his pieces it is not known if this was the case for The Thinker. Due to the numerous figures that Rodin had to compose for The Gates of Hell, The Thinker may have been a culmination of early sketches in which models sat in numerous poses. Once Rodin had decided on this position for The Thinker he would have made preliminary models from clay on a small scale. One of the artist's assistants would have then begun to carve the full-size model under his supervision. The artist was known to put the final touches to many of his carved pieces once the basic figure had been created by an assistant. The Thinker Critical Reception Les Arts de la vie Paris Unfortunately the Paris Museum for which the original The Gates of Hell was created was never built and so there is little critical reception for this piece in its original format. However, when Rodin chose to create The Thinker as a single sculpture it became one of his most well-known and acclaimed works.

A copy of the piece was in fact chosen by the artist to mark his grave in the cemetery at Meudon in Paris, France. Reception during the artist's Lifetime: The Thinker was first exhibited as a large-scale individual sculpture in 1904 at the Salon in Paris. The reaction to this piece was unprecedented and it became a favorite of the press at that time. Due to the fact that long before The Thinker was exhibited critics had been ridiculing Rodin's Monument to Balzac in the same gallery, one critic in particular felt that The Thinker more than made up for the abstract and unusual Balzac. Gabriel Mourey was the editor of a magazine called "Les Arts de la vie", which was a popular art publication of the time. Mourey started a subscription for The Thinker so that it could be purchased for the people of Paris to enjoy. By doing this, the memory of Rodin's disastrous Monument to Balzac was largely forgotten and Rodin cemented his place as the most influential sculptor of modern times. After the Artist's Death: Although some of Rodin's work fell out of favor as the 20th century progressed, The Thinker has remained one of the his most popular works.

Some critics have noted that this could be because The Thinker relates to everyone and the very human nature of the piece is much easier to understand than some of Rodin's more abstract works. 21st Century: Today the amount of copies of The Thinker around the world is testament to its popularity. Often used in many satirical comedies, The Thinker is such an iconic piece of work that it is still inspiring artists to this day. The Thinker Related Sculptures David Michelangelo As The Thinker is one of Rodin's most famous sculptures there are several works that have important connections to this piece. Related works range from similar pieces created by Rodin himself that share the same themes as The Thinker, to works by other artists that have either influenced Rodin directly or taken inspiration from The Thinker themselves. Other Works by Rodin: The Kiss: Rodin's The Gates of Hell illustrates characters from Dante's Inferno and one such scene includes that of the tragic mutual love of Paolo Malatesta for his sister-in-law Francesca de Rimini. Although this pairing was later removed from The Gates of Hell because it depicted a positive state, Rodin went on to create it as a full-size sculpture later in his career.

Its blend of eroticism and idealism makes it an iconic image of love. Works by other artists: Effe mit Schadel: Hugo Rheinhold was a contemporary of Rodin and an Impressionist sculptor from Germany. Rheinhold produced and exhibited his Affe mit Schadel before The Thinker was created. Both artists shared an appreciation of natural and realistic compositions. David: Michelangelo's sculpture portrays David, a Biblical hero, in a moment of deliberation. It is generally believed that this piece represents David immediately before his battle with Goliath. The Thinker Locations Through Time - Notable Sales Drouot Paris The original marble copy of The Thinker currently resides in the Musee Rodin in Paris, France. The piece was moved to the museum after Rodin's death when his whole estate was given to the French Government. As with many popular sculptures, several casts of the original work have been made and can now be found in cities all over the world. In June 2009 a bronze version of The Thinker was sold under auction for three million Euros at the Drouot auction house, in Paris.

This unprecedented amount was a big sale for a sculpture which only stood at 72.5 centimeters high. The Thinker Artist Auguste Rodin Auguste Rodin was a prolific artist and one who was widely acclaimed throughout his lifetime. Born in humble beginnings, The Thinker was part of one of his first civic commissions, The Gates of Hell. The Thinker itself was turned into an individual sculpture in 1902 and during this period Rodin was beginning to be a truly successful artist. During The Thinker's first exhibition in 1904 critics were so enthralled by the piece that it became Rodin's first work to be erected in a public place. This was after a campaign by Gabriel Mourey, editor of the magazine Les Arts de la vie, which raised funds for a new copy of the piece to be commissioned. By 1906 the second copy of The Thinker was erected in front of the Parthenon in Paris during a period of great political and social tensions. The Thinker became a symbol of the socialist movement in France during this time.

The Thinker Art Period Auguste Rodin was at the forefront of Impressionist sculpture and yet the artist never really connected himself with the other artists of the movement. Rodin never showed his work under the title of Impressionism and therefore it is hard to associate him with this art movement. The work of Rodin has remained some of the most innovative and ground-breaking of any sculptor in the history of art. Such was his impact that Rodin's work is often classified as Impressionist simply because it rebelled against the academic and classical ideals, as many Impressionist artists did through painting. The Thinker Bibliography Below is a list of internet and literary sources that offer more in-depth information about Rodin's The Thinker. Books: • Callen, Anthea. The Spectacular Body: Science, Method and Meaning in the Work of Degas. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1995 • Barbier, Nicolle. Marbres de Rodin: collection du musée. Paris, 1987: 184-187 • Barbier, Nicolle. Rodin sculpteur: Oeuvres méconnues. Exh. cat.

Musée Rodin, Paris, 1992: 187-190 • Elsen, Albert, E. Rodin's Gates of Hell. University of Minnesota, 1960 • Hawkins, Jennifer. Rodin Sculptures. VAM HMSO, London, 1975 • Kausch, Michael. Auguste Rodin: Eros und Leidenschaft. Exh. cat. Harrach Palace, Kunsthistorisches Museum • Lawton, Frederick. The Life and Work of Auguste Rodin. London, 1906 • Mitchell, Claudine. Rodin the Zola of Sculpture. Ashgate Publishing Ltd, 2004 • Rosenfeld, Daniel. "Rodin's Carved Sculpture. " In Rodin Rediscovered. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C., 1981: 85-87 Web Sources: The Thinker | Legion of Honor Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917) The Thinker, ca. 1880, cast ca. 1904 Bronze. Height: 6ft. 6in.

Signed: A Rodin; stamped: Alexis Rudier / Fondeur. Paris. Gift of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels 1924.18.1 Rodin's Thinker is perhaps his best known monumental work, first conceived circa 1880–1881 as a depiction of poet Dante. The image evolved until it no longer represented Dante, but all poets or creators. The work was designed to occupy the center of the tympanum of The Gates of Hell, which were intended to be a portal of a new Musée des Arts Decoratifs in Paris. The Thinker was designed as an independent figure almost from the time the Gates were composed, and was exhibited in Paris in 1889 at the Exposition Monet-Rodin at the Galerie Georges Petit. A bronze cast dated 1896 at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva reproduces the original twenty-seven inch version. The first over-life-size enlargement was exhibited at the Salon of 1904. At this time a subscription was begun for the most famous cast of it, that for the city of Paris, which was placed in front of the Pantheon.

Bronze casts of the large Thinker were not made by Rodin himself, but by a professional reducteur, Henri Lebosse, under the artist's supervision. The first large bronze (University of Louisville) was cast by A. A. Hebrard in 1904 for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in Saint Louis, but was rejected by the artist. Rodin turned principally to the founder Alexis Rudier for subsequent casts, and the Legion's example is one of several commissioned during Rodin's lifetime. Mrs. Spreckels purchased it through their mutual friend, Loie Fuller. The Thinker is one of the earliest acquisitions of the more than seventy Rodin sculptures that Mrs. Spreckels purchased and later donated to the Legion of Honor.

Other Thinkers A partial list of full size bronze casts of The Thinker In the US Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Stanford, CA Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH Columbia University, New York, NY Detroit Institute of Art, Detroit, MI Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA Rodin Museum, Philadelphia, PA 1000+ images about Artist - Auguste Rodin on Pinterest | Auguste rodin, The thinker and Museums Pinterest • The world’s catalog of ideas Artist - Auguste Rodin François-Auguste-René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917), known as Auguste Rodin was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art. 22 Pins548 Followers Who is Rodin's Thinker? Who is Rodin's Thinker?

One of the finest collections of Auguste Rodin's work - models and bronzes - will go on display at the Royal Ontario Museum on Sept. 20. This is good news for art lovers, especially in Canada. After touring the world, the collection will be installed in a new museum in the Ontario town of Barrie. The museum will be the centerpiece of a proposed "Art City" devoted to housing fine art exhibits on tour. Rodin's gorgeous bronze and marble sculptures - erotically charged or tormented and defeated - are surely the perfect choice for such a venture. Rodin is the Wagner of modern sculpture; he is one of those rare artists whose work speaks to the deep longings in most people, yet one whose work repays repeated visits and study. Discriminating viewers will be struck by the haunting depth of vision and the artist's impeccable craftsmanship. Rodin is also one of those artists who form a bridge between the Romanticism of the 19th century and the Modernism of the 20th, allowing us to see how we arrived at where we are now.

A good example is his first bust, The Man With the Broken Nose (1864), inspired by an old workman with a smashed in nose who yet had some of the features of a Greek bust. For the first time a sculptor took as his model not the perfection of classical sculpture but its present day fragmentary condition. Almost all busts that survive from antiquity have broken noses, just as most antique statues have lost heads, hands and other extremities. Rainer Maria Rilke, who was Rodin's secretary for a time, may have been inspired by his fragments to write one of his greatest poems - The Archaic Torso . Unfortunately there is a side of Rodin's work that has become kitsch through cheap reproductions and commercial rip-offs. This includes some of his best pieces like The Three Shades , and especially The Thinker . Cultural kitsch has a way of containing long lost loveliness, if you know how to rub off the patina hiding the bronze. I asked a group of savvy art students and cognoscenti who The Thinker was.

A few graduate students thought it could be a famous philosopher, perhaps Plato, or even Nietzsche's Superman; I reminded them that Nietzsche was unknown to the world when Rodin created The Thinker, and Plato wasn't even close. A few said it reminded them of the young Marlon Brando with his perfect body from his Streetcar Named Desire days. One wit said it was the young Brando in one of his heavy sessions at the Actors Studio, all naked and angst ridden, doing a philosopher manqué: "I could have been a think -er." Rodin's Story Auguste Rodin (b. 1840, Paris) was a poor boy with a rich talent for drawing who trained at the École Spéciale de Dessin et de Mathématique, a school with a mission to educate the designers and the artisans of the French nation. He was rejected three times by the École des Beaux Arts, the official art school of France. Rejection proved to be fortunate for this young artist because it forced him to find work among the commercial decorators and ornamental craftsmen of Paris. He was especially lucky to find employment in the studio of Carrier-Belleuse .

Carrier-Belleuse had a sharp sense of how to combine historical themes with new technologies and the process of mass production. During and after the Franco-Prussian War, Carrier-Belleuse took his young apprentice to Brussels to help build public monuments commissioned by the Belgian Government. A trip to Italy in 1875 further opened Rodin's eyes to the achievement of the past: Michelangelo, Donatello and Ghilberti. "Michelangelo saved me from academicism," he later noted. Michelangelo's magnificent young male aristocrats, muscular ignudi, grave prophets, enigmatic sibyls, heroic biblical figures, and his tormented, terrified and hell-bound sinners were to haunt Rodin's imagination for the rest of his life. In turn, Rodin's imagination revived the nearly dead art of sculpture in the late 19th century and provided inspiration for artists of the 20th century. Rodin's vision of man in his misery and greatness found its center when he received a commission from the French Government to create a portal for the entrance to the Museum of Decorative Art. The theme of the portal was Dante's Divine Comedy .

Whether or not Rodin had read Dante before this commission is unimportant: the brooding presence of this other great Florentine inspired and overwhelmed him, as he sat down to read and prepare hundreds of sketches for the work. The 19th century rediscovered Dante's poetry as well as many other things about the Middle Ages. For the first time since the Renaissance, Europe was receptive to the works and the spirit of its Christian past. Compared to the failures of the Age of Reason, especially post-Napoleonic Europe, the Middle Ages seemed like an era of spiritual health and artistic greatness. The Divine Comedy, considered to be the greatest marriage of European poetry and philosophy, and rivaled only by the pagan epics of Homer and Virgil, became a bestseller. Auguste Rodin had a passion for the Inferno; Dante's journey through hell was his inspiration, visualizing the characters became his career. Then on a trip to London in 1882 Rodin discovered his British contemporaries, the so-called Pre-Raphaelite painters. These Painters had already turned to illustrating Dante.

In this they were influenced by William Blake (1757-1827), poet and visual artist extraordinary who had created a remarkable series of illustrations for "the greatest poem ever written" . Rodin studied Blake's illustrations of Dante on his return to Paris, thus enlarging his vision and ambitions. (We cannot overlook the influence of the first great illustrator of the Divine Comedy, Botticelli, who was the favorite of the Pre-Raphaelites as well as a strong influence on Blake's linear style.) The combination of Dante's epic, Blake's drawings and the gigantic example of Michelangelo proved to be a potent cocktail, fueling Rodin for the next 40 years. Furthermore, it pushed him in the opposite direction from the painters of his period - the Salon favorites and the Impressionists and the Post-Impressionists . Thus the project expanded. Rodin took to calling the portal project The Gates of Hell. By using this title, he linked his doors with a famous work of the Renaissance: Ghilberti's Doors for the Florence Baptistery, which illustrate scenes from the Old Testament. These doors, which Michelangelo carefully studied, are known as the Gates of Paradise.

But the twisted and anguished figures come from Michelangelo's Last Judgment. Rodin never completed the huge work The Gates of Hell in a definitive form (he worked on it intermittently until 1900 and the museum never came into being in its proposed form), but he poured some of his finest creative energy into it. Even unfinished and unfinishable it served as a kind of matrix from which Rodin could draw as many as 200 individual pieces including such well-known works as The Kiss and The Thinker. The Thinker was originally meant to be Dante in front of the Gates of Hell, pondering his great poem. Dante as a voluptuous naked male may seem absurd to those who think of the images painted in his time and after, but Dante's head does bear some resemblance to the profile of The Thinker. Moreover, Dante's headdress is distinctive and seems to be indicated by the markings Rodin made on his working copy of The Thinker . Why is The Thinker naked? Because Rodin wanted a heroic figure à la Michelangelo to represent Thinking as well as Poetry. Rodin's Answer Rodin himself wrote about his intention: The Thinker has a story.

In the days long gone by I conceived the idea of the Gates of Hell. Before the door, seated on the rock, Dante thinking of the plan of the poem behind him... all the characters from the Divine Comedy. This project was not realized. Thin ascetic Dante in his straight robe separated from all the rest would have been without meaning. Guided by my first inspiration I conceived another thinker, a naked man, seated on a rock, his fist against his teeth, he dreams. The fertile thought slowly elaborates itself within his brain. He is no longer a dreamer, he is a creator. The work of Rodin resonates with the great aspirations of the 19th century, the century of Darwin, Marx and Wagner. But in his equation, The Thinker = the Poet = the Creator, Rodin was way ahead of his time. The greatest German Philosopher of the 20th century, Martin Heidegger, only began to formulate this equation in the 1930's in such works as "The Thinker as Poet", "What are Poets For?" and "...Man Dwells Poetically".

Now it is a commonplace of humanities departments, repeated endlessly by such luminaries as Derrida, Lyotard, Richard Rorty and their followers. Discover dozens of works by this artist on the Artcyclopedia page for Auguste Rodin . This article is copyright 2001 by Joseph Phelan. Please do not republish any portion of this article without written permission. Joseph Phelan can be contacted at joe.phelan@verizon.net Past Articles Rodin works For complete text, click here: Page 1+2 Page 3+4 ] Originally, 'The Thinker' - exhibited in Copenhagen in 1888 as 'The Poet' - was to represent Dante Alighieri, the author of the Divina Commedia, who - according to a popular anecdote - also used to sit and think on a rock in Florence called Sasso di Dante, watching the Baptistry.

As a portrait of Dante, 'The Thinker' symbolized the intellectual power that created the dramatic world depicted in 'The Gates': "In front of this Porte [Rodin explained to a journalist at the turn of the century], but on a rock, Dante was to be seated in profound meditation, conceiving the plan of his poem. Behind him, there was Ugolino, Francesca, Paolo, all the characters of the Divine Comedy. But something came of this idea. Gaunt, ascetic in his straight robe, my Dante, seperated from the ensemble, would have had no meaning. Still inspired by my original idea, I conceived of another Thinker, a naked man crouched on a rock against which his feet are contracted. Fist pressed against his teeth, he sits lost in contemplation. His fertile thoughts slowly unfalled in his imagination. He is not a dreamer; he is a creator." [Marcelle Adam, Le Penseur, in: Gil Blas, Paris, 7 July 1904, quoted by Grunfeld, chapter 8, p.

191] Interpreted this way, 'The Thinker' was detached from his personal connection with Dante and now is seen to represent the power of thought and mental creativity more generally. 'The Thinker' not only confirms Danteï¿½s high reputation as the embodiment of Plato's ideal of the artist-philosopher: on a more abstract level, Rodin's work associates the creative qualities of artistic genius with the ability to understand and judge society from a higher standpoint. Because of his central place high above the turmoil of the sinners, Elsen even draws a parallel to the figure of Christ in the Judgement Seat.Another identification of the artist with Christ can be found in 'Christ and Mary Magdalene' ; in 'The Hand of God' , finally, the creative power of the Deity is directly associated with that of the sculptor. The elevated position of 'The Thinker' also caused Rodin to enlarge the shoulders and arms, so that the proportions seem balanced when looking up to the figure from the ground. Later, when 'The Thinker' was enlarged and exhibited as a separate work, its lower placement led to an irritating impression of top-heaviness.

Still during Rodin's life-time, several critics speculated on the question, what 'The Thinker' was actually thinking about. With the growing popularity of the socialist movement, 'The Thinker' was sometimes interpreted as a working class hero, rising from the fetters of the material world to the heights of class consciousness: Democracy has had its heroes and its statues. But these heroes were often no more than bourgeois. (...) The Thinker of Mr Rodin is, on the contrary, the anonymous unknown worker, the first to come from among the proletariat, whose native homeliness the artist has exaggerated, again according to the exigencies and manner of his art (...) The proletariat will be flattered ... to see itself endowed with thought - the proletariat that is so often accused of having only blindness and instincts. 'Le Penseur' de Rodin, Lï¿½Univers et le Monde, quoted by Albert Elsen, in: Rodinï¿½s Thinker and the Dilemmas of Modern Public Sculpture, Yale University Press, p. 129 Morphologically spoken, Rodinï¿½s 'Thinker' is the successor of the torso of the 'Seated Ugolino', which Rodin created during his years in Belgium.

Around 1876, Rodin created a further study of a seated man, which can be seen as a another predecessor to 'The Thinker' (plaster, Nelson-Atkins Museum). Finally, the giants at the base of the 'Vase of the Titans' deal with the same complex task of endowing seated heroes with an expression of activity and strength. In 1901, Rodin recurred to 'The Thinker' while creating 'The American Athlete' . The first exhibited version of 'The Thinker' ï¿½ 1888 in Copenhagen ï¿½ in plaster was 71.5 cm high. Only in 1902, when Rodin began to have some of his most popular sculptures enlarged by his helper Henri LeBossï¿½, a monumental version of 'The Thinker' was created as well, ca. 1.84 m high. The enlargement was completed by the end of 1903 and shown in the Spring Salon in Paris 1904. In the Revue blue of 17 Dec.

1904, Gustave Geffroy commented:"If he were to stand up and walk, the ground under his feet would tremor and scores of soldiers would part for him." The first colossal bronze cast was produced by the young, ambitious founder Hï¿½brard, who promised Rodin to deliver a cast made after the prestigeous lost wax method, for the price of a sand cast. This first cast was shipped to the Louisiana World Exhibition and shown to the public, till Rodin began to doubt the quality of the patina and sent a plaster cast to Mississippi to replace the metal sculpture, which was eventually bought by Mr Walker. In Paris, Gabriel Mourey, publisher of the New magazine Les Arts de la Vie, took the initiative to organize a public subscription with the aim to present a monumental bronze cast "to the people of Paris", to be placed in front of the Panthï¿½on. As a maquette, a bronze coloured plaster was installed there; on 16 January 1905, this provisory sculpture was destroyed by a fanatic, called Poitron, who claimed the thinking poet was mocking at him.

In April 1906, the final bronze version was installed and remained in front of the Panthï¿½on for 16 years. In 1922, the statue with its pedestal was transported to the garden of the recently opened Musï¿½e Rodin, allegedly because it would be an obstacle during public ceremonies. By now, there are over 20 examples of the colossal bronze cast, placed in cities all over the world. One of the casts, manufactured by the Alexis Rudier Foundry, is placed next to the tomb of Rodin and his wife Rose Beuret in Meudon. For a detailed overview of all monumental plaster and bronze examples, see . BIBLIOGRAPHY (supplied by The National Gallery of Art, Washington): Bartlett, Truman H. "Auguste Rodin, Sculptor." American Architect and Building News (19 January-15 June 1889): 224. 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., Musï¿½e Rodin, Paris, 1989: 62. Adam, Marcel. "Le Penseur." Gil Blas (7 July 1904). Mourey, Gabriel. "Le Penseur de Rodin offert par souscription publique au peuple de Paris." Les Arts et la vie (May 1904): 267-270. Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musï¿½e Rodin. Paris, 1927: 61. Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musï¿½e Rodin. 5th ed. Paris, 1944: 24-25. Gantner, Joseph. Rodin und Michelangelo. Vienna, 1953: 27-28. Alhadeff, Albert. "Michelangelo and the Early Rodin." The Art Bulletin 4 (December 1963): 363-367.

Elsen, Albert E. Rodin. New York, 1963: 52-54. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 168 Spear, Athena Tacha. Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1967: 52-53, 96-97. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 148, repro. Tancock, John. The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin. Philadelphia, 1976: 111-121. de Caso, Jacques, and Patricia B. Sanders. Rodin's Sculpture: A Critical Study of the Spreckels Collection. San Francisco, 1977: 131-138. 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. Elsen, Albert E. In Rodin's Studio. Ithaca, New York, 1980: figs. 19-22, pls. 23, 24, 165-166. Vincent, Clare. "Rodin at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A History of the Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Spring 1981): 4-5. Schmoll, J.A. Rodin--Studien: Persï¿½nlichkeit--Werke--Wirkung--Bibliographie. Munich, 1983: 54-58, 66-67, 192-193, 278-282. Elsen, Albert E. Rodin's Thinker and the Dilemmas of Modern Public Sculpture. New Haven and London, 1985. Elsen, Albert E. The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin.

Stanford, California, 1985: 56-57. Jamison, Rosalyn Frankel. Rodin and Hugo: The Nineteenth-Century Theme of Genius in "The Gates" and Related Works. Ph.D. diss., Stanford University, 1986: 69-122. 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. Fonsmark, Anne-Birgitte. Rodin: La collection du Brasseur Carl Jacobsen ï¿½ la Glyptothï¿½que. Copenhagen, 1988: 73-78. Vilain, Jacques.

Claude Monet-Auguste Rodin: Centennaire de l'exposition de 1889. Exh. cat. Musï¿½e Rodin, Paris, 1989: 174-176. Butler, Ruth. Rodin. The Shape of Genius. New Haven and London, 1993: 423-435. Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 208, repro. Kausch, Michael. Auguste Rodin: Eros und Leidenschaft. Exh. cat. Harrach Palace, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1996: 166-168. Porter, John R., and Yves Lacasse. Rodin ï¿½ Quebec. Quebec, 1998: 78-83. 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. Rodin, Auguste: "The Thinker" --�Kids Encyclopedia | Children's Homework Help | Kids Online Dictionary | Britannica Rodin, Auguste (Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)) (18401917). The French sculptor Auguste Rodin created strikingly realistic figures in bronze and marble. His work had great influence on the sculpture of the 20th century. Rodin, Auguste : Career (Children's Encyclopedia (Ages 8-11)) In 1877 Rodin exhibited his sculpture The Age of Bronze. It is a surprisingly realistic representation of a male figure. It is so lifelike that critics said Rodin must have formed its mold on a living person. Rodin had not done so and he strongly denied the accusation. The Age of Bronze drew much ... To cite this page: Rodin, Auguste: The Thinker. Photograph. Britannica Online for Kids. Web.

Auguste Rodin: The French sculptor's five most iconic works - pictures - Mirror Online Auguste Rodin: The French sculptor's five most iconic works - pictures The father of modern sculpture's best-known masterpieces include The Kiss, The Thinker and The Burghers of Calais Share Father of modern sculpture: Auguste Rodin (Photo: Getty) Share Get daily updates directly to your inbox + Subscribe Thank you for subscribing! Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email Google is celebrating the 172nd birthday of Auguste Rodin , the universally accepted father of modern sculpture. The French sculptor's work was initially unpopular, but in his later years he became a world-renowned artist. Today's Google doodle iincorporates one of Rodin's best-known works, The Kiss. Tribute: Google's version of The Kiss Here we take a closer look at Rodin's five most famous sculptures. The Kiss This 1889 marble sculpture of an embracing couple depicts the 13th-century Italian noblewoman Francesca da Rimini from Dante's Inferno, who falls in love with her husband's younger brother Paolo. The couple are discovered and killed by Francesca's husband.

The lovers' lips do not actually touch in the sculpture, suggesting that they were interrupted and met their demise without them ever having kissed. The Kiss (Photo: Getty) The Thinker Probably the best known of Rodin's monumental works, this depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle. First conceived circa 1880–1881 as a depiction of Dante, the image evolved to represent all poets and creators. It now lives in the Rodin Museum in Paris, and is often used to represent philosophy. The Thinker (Photo: Getty) The Burghers of Calais Also completed in 1889, this sculpture serves as a monument to the moment in 1347 during the Hundred Years' War when Calais was captured by the English. Edward III offered to spare the people if any six of the French port's top leaders would surrender themselves to him almost naked, with nooses around their necks, and carrying the keys to the city and castle. One of the wealthiest of the town leaders, Eustache de Saint Pierre, volunteered first, and five other burghers soon followed suit, stripping down to their breeches.

This poignant mix of defeat, heroic self-sacrifice, and willingness to face imminent death was captured by Rodin in his sculpture. Burghers of Calais (Photo: Getty) The Gates of Hell This sculptural group work depicts a scene from "The Inferno" and contains 180 figures ranging in size from 15cm high up to more than one metre. It was commissioned in 1880 and was meant to be delivered in 1885, but Rodin continued to work on and off on the project for 37 years until his death in 1917. Rodin worked on The Gates of Hell at the Hôtel Biron in Paris, and in 1919, two years after his death, the hotel became the Musée Rodin for the world to enjoy his work. The Gates of Hell (Photo: Getty) The Age of Bronze This bronze statue of a life-size nude man was first exhibited in 1877 in Paris, when Rodin was falsely accused of having made it by casting a living model. He vigorously denied the charge, but the controversy benefited him, as members of the public were so eager to see his work and decide for themselves.

The figure was created to suggest heroism and suffering, what many of Rodin's countrymen went through while fighting in the Franco-Prussian War from 1870 to 1871. The Age of Bronze (Photo: Getty) Most Read Most Recent Most Read Most Recent The Thinker | Rodin Museum H. 189 cm ; W. 98 cm ; D. 140 cm S.2838 When conceived in 1880 in its original size (approx. 70 cm) as the crowning element of The Gates of Hell , seated on the tympanum , The Thinker was entitled The Poet. He represented Dante, author of the Divine Comedy which had inspired The Gates, leaning forward to observe the circles of Hell, while meditating on his work. The Thinker was therefore initially both a being with a tortured body, almost a damned soul, and a free-thinking man, determined to transcend his suffering through poetry. The pose of this figure owes much to Carpeaux’s Ugolino (1861) and to the seated portrait of Lorenzo de’ Medici carved by Michelangelo (1526-31).

While remaining in place on the monumental Gates of Hell, The Thinker was exhibited individually in 1888 and thus became an independent work. Enlarged in 1904, its colossal version proved even more popular: this image of a man lost in thought, but whose powerful body suggests a great capacity for action, has became one of the most celebrated sculptures ever known. Numerous casts exist worldwide, including the one now in the gardens of the Musée Rodin, a gift to the City of Paris installed outside the Panthéon in 1906, and another in the gardens of Rodin’s house in Meudon, on the tomb of the sculptor and his wife. Rodin, the Monument to Victor Hugo and The Thinker Rodin's "Thinker" in Dr Linde's Garden in Lübeck George Bernard Shaw in the Pose of "The Thinker"

Question: Which sculptor is famous for his work "The Thinker"?
Answer: Rodin