The Thinker

The bronze figure was originally conceived in 1880 as a central figure for Rodin's massive portal, The Gates of Hell. The figure was initially intended to represent Dante Alighieri contemplating his epic poem, The Inferno. It was only later scaled up and cast as an independent, monumental sculpture in 1904.

Rodin chose to depict the figure as a muscular, heroic nude to represent raw, universal intellectual thought rather than a specific historical person in period clothing. He wanted the figure to embody the act of thinking through every muscle of the human body, from the furrowed brow to the gripping toes. This aligns with the classical tradition of heroic nudity.

The first monumental, full-sized cast of The Thinker is located in front of the Rodin Museum in Paris. There are roughly 28 monumental versions of the sculpture cast in bronze around the world. However, the Paris version is the most famous and sits over the tomb of the artist.

The seated, contemplative pose was heavily inspired by Lorenzo Ghiberti's Gates of Paradise at the Florence Baptistery, which Rodin studied closely. The posture is reminiscent of the seated prophets on Ghiberti's doors. It also echoes Michelangelo's figure of Lorenzo de' Medici on his tomb in Florence.