The Thinker (c. 1880): Art, History and Details

The Thinker (c. 1880) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Rodin originally conceived The Thinker as a depiction of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) sitting in the upper center of a monumental sculptural doorway titled The Gates of Hell (below). Inspired by Dante’s description of a journey through the underworld in his epic poem The Divine Comedy (about 1320), The Thinker contemplates mankind’s fate while gazing at a host of damned figures writhing in anguish below. Stripped of clothing, the figure’s rippling muscles convey an inner, animating life force symbolic of mental activity or creative effort. The figure leans forward, as if ready to spring from his perch, yet seems simultaneously caught in the inaction of deep thought. Rodin produced independent versions of The Thinker, first in this original size and later in a monumental version.

Object facts

• Title: The Thinker
• Date: c. 1880
• Creator attribution: Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: bronze
• Dimensions: Overall: 70.8 x 34.9 x 59.7 cm (27 7/8 x 13 3/4 x 23 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Sculpture 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1979.138

Collection credit

Gift of Alexandre P. Rosenberg

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (1980): 58-99.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.