The Thinker
Medium
bronze
Dimensions
182.9 × 98.4 × 142.2 cm
Classification
Sculpture
Department
Modern European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Ralph King
Accession Number
1917.42
Rights
Public Domain
Tags
male
About this artwork
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.