List of The Thinker sculptures

The Thinker in front of the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia

This is a list of The Thinker sculptures made by Auguste Rodin. The Thinker, originally a part of Rodin's The Gates of Hell, exists in several versions. The original size and the later monumental size versions were both created by Rodin, and the most valuable versions are those created under his supervision. There was also a limited edition of 25 copies made from the original plaster mold by the Musée Rodin after Rodin's death.

The Thinker exists as bronze casts, exhibition plaster casts (some were painted to look like bronze patina), and original production plasters, which some consider art objects today.

Copies of The Thinker made during Rodin's lifetime

Location Image Size Material Date Notes References
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne Original Bronze 1884 Earliest bronze casting, has Florentine cap [1]
Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Geneva Original Bronze 1896 [2]
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. Original Bronze 1901 [3]
Panthéon, Latin Quarter, Paris (destroyed) Monumental Plaster, bronze-tinted 1904 Earliest monumental. The statue was vandalized and later scrapped. [4]
The Burrell Collection A statue Original Bronze 1902 Bought by Mr. Burrell in 1922. Many fingerprints and marks were left by the sculptor. [5][6]
University of Louisville A statue Monumental Bronze 1903 First casting by A. A. Hébrard, lost wax technique, displayed at Louisiana Purchase Exposition [4][7]
Commissioned by Max Linde in 1903. Today Detroit Institute of Arts Monumental Bronze 1903 First casting by Alexis Rudier, sand casting, four days younger than Louisville copy,
publicly displayed at Leipzig and Berlin		 [8][9]
Metropolitan Museum, New York Monumental Plaster, bronze-tinted 1904 Sent to the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition in St. Louis to replace the bronze version [4]
Musée Rodin, Paris Monumental Bronze 1904 Installed outside Paris Panthéon in 1906, moved to Musée Rodin garden in 1922 [10]
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek Monumental Bronze 1904 the "third Hébrard copy" [11][4]
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Monumental Plaster 1904 acquired by museum in October 1904 [4]
National Museum, Poznań Monumental Plaster 1904 acquired in January 1905 [4][12]
Strasbourg Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Monumental Plaster 1904 purchased from the artist in 1907 [13]
Legion of Honor, San Francisco Monumental Bronze 1904 Alexis Rudier cast, purchased in 1915, donated to San Francisco in 1922 [14]
Private collection, Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts Original Bronze 1906 made for Ralph Pulitzer, sold for $15.3 million in 2013 [citation needed]
Laeken Cemetery, Brussels A statue Monumental Bronze 1906 Alexis Rudier cast, installed on the grave of Jef Dillen in 1927 [4][15][16]
Ca' Pesaro, Venice Monumental Plaster, bronze-tinted 1907 purchased at the 1907 Biennale [17]
Congressional Plaza, Buenos Aires Monumental Bronze 1907 Purchased by the museum director to Auguste Rodin, one of the three sculptures cast in the original mold and signed by him [18][19][20]
Waldemarsudde, Sweden Monumental Bronze 1908 Alexis Rudier cast, for Prince Eugen of Norway and Sweden [21]
Private collection Original Bronze 1916 sold for $11.8 million in 2010 [22][23]
Rodin's tomb, Meudon Monumental Bronze 1916 Alexis Rudier cast, placed at the grave when his wife died [4]
Cleveland Museum of Art A statue Monumental Bronze 1916 Alexis Rudier cast, purchased 1916, damaged in 1970 and remains unrepaired. According to police, the perpetrators were a faction of the Weathermen, possibly the same individuals killed in a bomb-making accident in New York City,[11] although police never charged anyone in the bombing. [11][24][25]
Musée Rodin at Meudon Monumental Plaster, bronze-tinted 1916 the museum has several plaster casts in different sizes and of different ages [26]

Later casts

Europe

North America

The Thinker in front of Philosophy Hall at Columbia University

South America

Asia

The Thinker in NTHU, Taiwan

See also

References

  1. ^ Blanchetière, François; Thurrowgood, David (2013). "Two insights into Auguste Rodin's The Thinker". Art Journal. 52. National Gallery of Victoria. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  2. ^ "Le Penseur, élément de la Porte de l'Enfer". Musées d'art et d'histoire, Genève. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  3. ^ "The Thinker (Le Penseur)". National Gallery of Art. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Rodin's Enlarged Thinker". RODIN-WEB. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  5. ^ "The Thinker, by Rodin". The Burrell Collection. Retrieved 15 November 2022.
  6. ^ Gasson, Barry (2010). The Burrell Collection. Glasgow: HarperCollins Publisher in association with Glasgow Museums. p. 158. ISBN 978-0-902752-55-9.
  7. ^ Zaccone, Janene (9 April 2012). "Fact Sheet: The Thinker at the University of Louisville". University of Louisville. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  8. ^ "The Thinker". Detroit Institute of Arts. Archived from the original on 5 April 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  9. ^ Rodin, Auguste; Kuhlemann, Michael; Forum, Bucerius Kunst (2006). Vor 100 Jahren: Rodin in Deutschland : eine Ausstellung des Bucerius Kunst Forums und der Skulpturensammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Musee Rodin, Paris (in German). Hirmer. pp. 72–73. ISBN 978-3-7774-3025-6.
  10. ^ "The Thinker". Musée Rodin. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  11. ^ a b c Christman, Bruce (1998). "Twenty-Five Years After the Bomb: Maintaining Cleveland's The Thinker". Journal of the American Institute for Conservation. 37 (2): 173–186. doi:10.1179/019713698806082877. Archived from the original on 25 September 2009.
  12. ^ de Roos, Hans (23 December 2004). "The Digital Sculpture Project: Applying 3D Scanning Techniques for the Morphological Comparison of Sculptures". Computer and Information Science. 9 (2). CiteSeerX 10.1.1.124.6463. ISSN 1401-9841.
  13. ^ "Le Penseur". navigart.fr. 3 December 2002. Retrieved 13 September 2019.
  14. ^ "The Thinker". Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. 4 May 2010. Retrieved 8 September 2023.
  15. ^ "Le penseur du père Lachaise Bruxellois". Le soir. 31 October 1992. Retrieved 20 February 2017.
  16. ^ "Les secrets de Laeken : à la découverte du " Père Lachaise " belge". L'avenir. 22 August 2015. Retrieved 20 February 2017. One of the 22 copies of The Thinker made during Rodin's lifetime
  17. ^ Rodin Auguste, Catalogue of Ca' Pesaro Archived 25 February 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ "Plaza del Congreso". Sitio oficial de turismo de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. 14 February 2013.
  19. ^ "Un pensador francés sentado en la plaza del Congreso « Guía Vulevú". Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2015.
  20. ^ "www.barriada.com.ar - Mabel Crego - Estatua El Pensador de Rodin". www.barriada.com.ar. 27 April 2008.
  21. ^ Auguste Rodin, Prins Eugens Waldemarsudde
  22. ^ Michaud, Christopher (6 May 2010). "Sotheby's marks a solid night at Impressionist sale". Reuters. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  23. ^ Labo (2 October 2012). "The valuing of exceptional paintings and works of art". Gilles Perrault. Archived from the original on 26 June 2015. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  24. ^ "The Thinker Vandalized" Archived 18 February 2018 at the Wayback Machine The Cleveland Museum of Art
  25. ^ "A God Among Men". The Cleveland Free Times. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.
  26. ^ The Thinker, Joconde Portail des collections des musées de France
  27. ^ "Le Penseur". Kunst in de openbare ruimte. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  28. ^ "Auguste Rodin". Musée des Beaux-Arts Montréal. Archived from the original on 22 November 2013.
  29. ^ Auguste Rodin, The Thinker
  30. ^ "The enlarged Thinker: New posthumous bronze casts", penseur.org. Accessed 20 March 2013.
  31. ^ "MacLaren Art Centre – Media Releases – The Thinker Reviewed". Archived from the original on 8 January 2009. Retrieved 16 October 2010.
  32. ^ Barry, Dan; Rashbaum, William K. (20 May 2002). "Born of Hell, Lost After Inferno". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  33. ^ City of Goldendale – Arts & Culture Archived 23 September 2010 at the Wayback Machine
  34. ^ Auguste Rodin — The Thinker
  35. ^ "PR: Martin Lawrence Galleries Delivers World-renowned Masterpieces to the Las Vegas Strip". OpenVegas. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  36. ^ "The Thinker » Norton Simon Museum". www.nortonsimon.org.
  37. ^ "Search View". ncartmuseum.org. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  38. ^ Wander, Robin (24 January 2012). "The Thinker, one of the most famous works of art in the world, comes home to Stanford's Cantor Arts Center". Stanford Report. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  39. ^ Burell, Ebonee (2 June 2022). "Bodies Human: National exhibit puts bones, organs on display in Panama City Beach". The News Herald. Panama City, Florida. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  40. ^ "Photo of the Authorized replica in the Ricardo Brennand Institute".
  41. ^ "Instituto Ricardo Brennand abre no feriado de Páscoa" [Ricardo Brennand Institute opens on Easter holiday] (in Portuguese). Sim!. Archived from the original on 6 May 2007.
  42. ^ "Galeria de Fotos: Belém ganha exposição internacional de Camille Claudel" [Photo gallery: Bethlehem wins international exhibition of Camille Claudel] (in Portuguese). Portal ORM. 21 June 2006. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011.
  43. ^ "The Thinker (Enlarged)", National Museum of Western Art. Accessed 20 March 2013.
  44. ^ "Water Fountain Garden: The Thinker (Le Penseur)". Kyoto National Museum. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  45. ^ "Museum Dictionary: Rodin's Thinker". Kyoto National Museum. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  46. ^ "List of works at Rodin wing", Shizuoka Prefectural Art Museum. Accessed 20 March 2013.
  47. ^ "Who we are". Asia University Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 18 April 2024. The AsiaUniversity purchased Rodin'sThe Thinker as the highlight object of the Museum collection.
  48. ^ "National Tsing Hua University-Cover Story". www.nthu.edu.tw. 4 November 2010. Archived from the original on 13 September 2014. Retrieved 18 April 2024. Donation of Rodin's The Thinker:A Generous Birthday Give [sic] to NTHU
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