The Thinker

Auguste Rodin|Alexis Rudier

modeled ca. 1880, cast ca. 1910 · Bronze · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The Thinker was made to sit over the lintel of Rodin’s monumental bronze doorway, The Gates of Hell, contemplating the fate of the damned. Independent bronzes of The Thinker became popular, especially among American patrons. Thomas Fortune Ryan, principal founder of the Rodin collection at The Met, commissioned this cast from the sculptor’s studio. In a real sense, The Thinker is Rodin. Brutishly muscled yet engrossed in thought, coiled in tension yet loose in repose, the sculpture, according to one early twentieth-century critic, embodies both "dream and action."

Artist

Auguste Rodin|Alexis Rudier

Date

modeled ca. 1880, cast ca. 1910

Medium

Bronze

Culture

French

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Thomas F. Ryan, 1910