Cleveland Museum of Art

The Thinker

Auguste Rodin

Date

1880–81

Medium

bronze

Culture

France, 19th century

Department

Modern European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The Thinker was first developed as part of Rodin's The Gates of Hell , a sculptured doorway for a proposed museum of decorative arts in Paris. Intended to be part of a relief directly above the doors, the rugged figure was originally conceived as a generalized image of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), who wrote the Divine Comedy . This enlarged version of The Thinker is one of less than 10 cast during Rodin's lifetime.

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