Why the thinker is famous

Share Share on. Cast made by Fonderie Alexis Rudier in Sculpture garden We cannot guarantee the presence of all our artworks; some may be out on loan. Discover the themes related to the work. Date of conception : The work was nothing like the bulk of Italian and Greek sculptures that came before, which expressed ideals of beauty, perfection, valor and harmony.

The enlarged one in this show was cast in And you can find dozens of big and smaller, inch "Thinkers" worldwide, in museums and private collections. And his toes are clenched on the base. It speaks, I think, really powerfully to what can happen when someone creates an image that so many people over so many lengths of time can really respond to.

About a decade later the Cleveland Museum of Art acquired its own "Thinker. Some people blame the radical, political group the Weather Underground, although no arrests were made. The museum continues to display the piece — damage and all. To Hartigan, "The Thinker" represents the power of reflection and the potential for action.

So Hartigan sees him as a "doer. He pondered this while looking at an enlarged image of "The Thinker" on his big screen TV. For him, "The Thinker" is open to interpretation, and he believes our reactions to the sculpture tell us something about ourselves. And if you value thinking you might look at him — as I think Rodin intended him to be depicted — as engaged in some sort of heroic struggle of the mind. Either way, we feel strongly engaged with Rodin's piece, according to Malkin, and he said that's one of the reasons it will always speak to us, not matter what age we're in.

That's it. He's not doing anything," Malkin said. The grand size and incredible detail of the towering piece required 37 years of work from Rodin. In all that time, the Gates of Hell was never finished and the museum itself was never built.

Rodin originally called this pondering figure The Poet. This name supports the theory that the statue was meant as a depiction of Dante. The name The Thinker is credited to foundry workers who felt the sculpture bore a notable resemblance to Michelangelo's sculpture of the same name.

Rodin chose to make his Thinker naked to follow in the style of the heroic nudes of Michelangelo and his Renaissance brethren. It's also suspected that the works of Rodin's contemporary, German sculptor Hugo Rheinhold , were an inspiration. Art historians cite the pair's shared interest in poses that favored the natural and realistic postures of man. The fertile thought slowly elaborates itself within his brain. He is no longer a dreamer, he is a creator.

Did you know fine art could have spin-offs? Rodin experimented with a plaster cast version of his Gates of Hell standout.