The Thinker (1902-1904)
Auguste Rodin (1840–1917)
- Rodin Museum entrance and walk, Benjamin Franklin Parkway between 21st and 22nd Streets
- Modeled in clay 1880-81, enlarged 1902-4; cast in bronze 1919
- Bronze, on concrete and limestone bases
- Height 20'10 3/4"; width 13'2"
- Gift of Jules Mastbaum
- Owned by the City of Philadelphia and administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art
The large version of The Thinker was exhibited in Paris in 1904, to so much acclaim that funds were raised to purchase it for the city. This was a time of great social and political turmoil in France, and when the sculpture was installed in front of the Panthéon in 1906, Rodin interpreted it as a "social symbol" magnifying "the fertile thought of those humble people of the soil who are nevertheless producers of powerful energies." In the years thereafter, it may have acquired other meanings for him as well. When his wife died in 1917, he had a cast of The Thinker placed on her grave at Meudon, in front of the ruined façade of an old chateau that Rodin had purchased and installed there. At the same site Rodin himself was buried a few months later.
Philadelphia's Thinker is a cast of the 1902–1904
version. It was installed for the opening of the Rodin Museum
in 1929, in front of a façade that replicates the one
at Meudon, so that together the sculpture and façade
match the arrangement at Rodin's tomb.
Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992).
The Thinker
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Voices heard in the program:
Mark di Suvero is a renowned sculptor who was deeply influenced by the work of Rodin.
Joseph J. Rishel is Gisela and Dennis Alter Senior Curator at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and Senior Curator of the Rodin Museum.
Segment Producer: Lu Olkowski
Voices: Mark di Suvero and Joseph J. Rishel
Segment Producer: Lu Olkowski
