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The Thinker

Founder Cast by Alexis Rudier French
modeled ca. 1880, cast ca. 1910
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 800
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."

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Thinker
  • Artist: Auguste Rodin (French, Paris 1840–1917 Meudon)
  • Founder: Cast by Alexis Rudier (French)
  • Date: modeled ca. 1880, cast ca. 1910
  • Culture: French
  • Medium: Bronze
  • Dimensions: Overall (wt. confirmed): 27 5/8 in., 185 lb. (70.2 cm, 83.9 kg)
  • Classification: Sculpture-Bronze
  • Credit Line: Gift of Thomas F. Ryan, 1910
  • Object Number: 11.173.9
  • Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

More Artwork

More Artwork
The Thinker (Le Penseur), Auguste Rodin French, Plaster, French
The Thinker (Le Penseur)
Auguste Rodin
1904
Adam, Auguste Rodin French, Bronze, French, Paris
Adam
Auguste Rodin
modeled 1880 or 1881, cast 1910
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century
Bronze statuette of a rider wearing an elephant skin, Bronze, Greek
Bronze statuette of a rider wearing an elephant skin
Greek
3rd century BCE
Oedipus and the Sphinx, Gustave Moreau French, Oil on canvas
Oedipus and the Sphinx
Gustave Moreau
1864

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