Honolulu Museum of Art:

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1917)
The Thinker
Modeled 1880
Reduced in 1903, this example at a later date.
Bronze
Alexis Rudier Foundry
North Carolina Museum of Art, Gift of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor.
Foundation in honor of Governor Michael F. Easley and Mary P. Easley.

This 14 3/4 - inch cast of The Thinker was a gift from the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation to the North Carolina Museum of Art in 2009. It is one of more than 700 works by Rodin donated by the Cantor Collections to institutions all over the world.

The Thinker was modeled about 1880 as a centerpiece for Rodin's epic work, The Gates of Hell. When the commission for the Gates was cancelled Rodin separated this 28-inch figure from it's position in the tympanum of the Gates and began to cast and exhibit it separately from its original context. This figure of a muscular nude deeply in thought quickly caught the admiring attention of critics and collectors.

Rodin cast and sold many replicas (the term used for original casts of sculpted multiples) at the first size, 28 inches. He also enlarged the piece to its monumental size of 74 inches when it was to be placed out-of-doors or in grand institutional settings. Likewise he made many casts---like the one exhibited here---in a reduced size of 14 3/4 inches; casts of this size were often collected by individuals. His studio assistants used Collas machines to accomplish these enlargements and reductions, always working under Rodin's direction.

At any size the piece was much acclaimed and had many avid collectors. It is a bold and modern statement that nevertheless has many sources in the history of art; these include sculpture by Michelangelo and Carpeaux.

Who and what is The Thinker? Originally the figure is said to have portrayed Dante, author of Divine Comedy, the source for the moralistic story told by The Gates of Hell. During the years between 1880 and today, the fame of the sculpture has given it many lives, not the least of which are, first, a personification of everyman-artist considering the act of thinking, another instance of Rodin making visible the invisible, a very modern idea.

Nikon 1 J3 camera, 1 Nikkor 10mm f/2.8 lens.
Program mode, 1/60, f/2.8, iso3200, 10mm (FOV 27mm).
Full image, 800x1200, lens corrected, hand-held.