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TheThinker (Le Penseur) is rough around the edges. Head in hand. The sta...
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TheThinker (Le Penseur) is rough around the edges. Head in hand. The starkly nude male figure sits in intense contemplation. His body twisted awkwardly to rest his right arm on his left knee. He is modeled in intensive detail, yet maintaining rough texture. Rodin pays homage to his primary sculptural influences; Michelangelo and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. The skull cap recalling the portraits of Dante, and the torso reminding us of the taut musculature of the damned Ugolino, from Carpeaux in 1863. The entire generation of the 1870's was influenced heavily by the works of Dante and Michelangelo, including the enormously popular Carpeaux, for they had set the bar with which all creativity could be measured. The Thinker was first conceived ca. 1880-1881 as a portrait of the poet Dante for the central tympanum on The Gates of Hell (Le Porte l'Enfer). The concept evolved from signifying the genius of Dante, but representing all poets or creators. The Thinker was designed as an independent figure almost from the time the Gates were composed. Since the sculpture was intended to sit many feet above the viewer, it is thought that this was Dante surveying the scene below, or perhaps inventing it altogether. Rodin's Dante, is in a restless and awakened sleep. Deaf. Dumb. Blind. Oblivious to the din which encircles him. The over sized hands convey the power and potential anguish of the damned souls which surround them. The toes clutch at the ground, just as Ugolino gnaws anxiously at his fingertips.
The Thinker was first exhibited in Copenhagen in 1888, and in Paris in 1889 at the Exposition Monet-Rodin at the Galerie Georges Petit. A later bronze cast, dated 1896, at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva, illustrates this original twenty-eight inch version. "He sits absorbed and silent, heavy with thought; with all the strength of an acting man he thinks. His whole body has become head and all the blood in his veins has become brain. He occupies the center of the gate. Above him, on the top of the frame, are three male figures; they stand with head bent together as though overlooking a great depth; each stretches out an arm and points toward the abyss which drags them downward. The Thinker must bear this weight within himself." -Rainer Marie Rilke
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TheThinker (Le Penseur) is rough around the edges. Head in hand. The sta...
more
TheThinker (Le Penseur) is rough around the edges. Head in hand. The starkly nude male figure sits in intense contemplation. His body twisted awkwardly to rest his right arm on his left knee. He is modeled in intensive detail, yet maintaining rough texture. Rodin pays homage to his primary sculptural influences; Michelangelo and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. The skull cap recalling the portraits of Dante, and the torso reminding us of the taut musculature of the damned Ugolino, from Carpeaux in 1863. The entire generation of the 1870's was influenced heavily by the works of Dante and Michelangelo, including the enormously popular Carpeaux, for they had set the bar with which all creativity could be measured. The Thinker was first conceived ca. 1880-1881 as a portrait of the poet Dante for the central tympanum on The Gates of Hell (Le Porte l'Enfer). The concept evolved from signifying the genius of Dante, but representing all poets or creators. The Thinker was designed as an independent figure almost from the time the Gates were composed. Since the sculpture was intended to sit many feet above the viewer, it is thought that this was Dante surveying the scene below, or perhaps inventing it altogether. Rodin's Dante, is in a restless and awakened sleep. Deaf. Dumb. Blind. Oblivious to the din which encircles him. The over sized hands convey the power and potential anguish of the damned souls which surround them. The toes clutch at the ground, just as Ugolino gnaws anxiously at his fingertips.
The Thinker was first exhibited in Copenhagen in 1888, and in Paris in 1889 at the Exposition Monet-Rodin at the Galerie Georges Petit. A later bronze cast, dated 1896, at the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire in Geneva, illustrates this original twenty-eight inch version. "He sits absorbed and silent, heavy with thought; with all the strength of an acting man he thinks. His whole body has become head and all the blood in his veins has become brain. He occupies the center of the gate. Above him, on the top of the frame, are three male figures; they stand with head bent together as though overlooking a great depth; each stretches out an arm and points toward the abyss which drags them downward. The Thinker must bear this weight within himself." -Rainer Marie Rilke
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