The Metropolitan Museum of Art Auguste Rodin: The Thinker Sculpture Online

Bronze Statue, Fine Art Sculpture

Our Scaled Reproduction In Hand-Patinated Bonded Bronze Was Scanned From A Bronze Of The Thinker In The Met Collection, Which Was Cast About 1910 From An Original 19Th-Century Model By Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917).

Rodin’S First Government Commission Was For A Monumental Portal Covered With Sculptural Reliefs For A Paris Museum. He Proposed A Vast Composition Based Loosely On Dante’S Divine Comedy, But The Work Remained Unfinished. The Artist Later Began To Extract Individual Figures From The Reliefs And Enlarge Them To Create Freestanding Sculptures. In Its Original Position, The Thinker Was At The Center Of The Portal’S Lintel. The Detached, Brooding Figure Has Been Invested With Multiple Meanings—Poet, Judge, Sculptor.