“The Thinker has a history. In the days already long gone, I conceived of the idea of the Gates of Hell. In front of these Gates, seated on a rock, Dante absorbed in deep thought, conceived the plan for his poem. Behind him were Ugolino, Francesca, Paolo, all the characters of the Divine Comedy. This project did not come off. Thin, ascetic, in his straight robe, my Dante, separated from the group, would mean nothing. Following my initial inspiration, I conceived another “Thinker”, a nudeman, crouched on a rock, on which his feet areclenched. His fists to his teeth, he dreams. Slowly a fertile thought develops itself in his brain. He is not a dreamer, he is a creator. I made my statue,” Rodin explained in 1904. Exhibited here in its original size The Thinker placed under The Three Shades thus dominates the Gates; the powerful musculature, the torsion, inspired by the Torso Belvedere, and the wholly interiorized tension of the sculpture may be referred, as is frequently the case, to the lesson of Michelangelo. Later, after the success of this subject, he had many examples made, but with the size much reduced (H. 37.5 cm). A group of friends proposed to Rodin, somewhat defiantly, launching a national subscription in order to offer The Thinker, on its monumental scale, to the city of Paris. Inauguratedon 21st April 1906 at the Panthéon, the statue was transferred to the Musée Rodin in 1921-1922. A further large Thinker was placed on Rodin’s tomb at Meudon.
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