Unlock the Mysteries of The Thinker, Auguste Rodin’s Most Famous Work
Revealing the meaning behind Rodin’s iconic sculpture
The extraordinary ability for works of art to enter the public consciousness and take on a meaning beyond their original intent is no better illustrated than with Auguste Rodin’s The Thinker.
For Rodin, the sculpture began as a portrait of an idealised poet, conceived only as part of a much larger work. Yet The Thinker has come to stand for so much more.
The statue depicts a male nude leaning forward, absorbed in deep and intense thought. So iconic has the figure become that it now stands as a symbol for contemplation and reflection: the heavy chin resting on the back of the wrist, the brooding posture, and his downcast eyes focused elsewhere.
It was not originally titled The Thinker. This sobriquet was only applied to the statue at a later date by foundry workers who made the various replicas that now populate museums around the world. They noted its similarity to Michelangelo’s statue of Lorenzo de Medici called Il Pensieroso (“The Thinker”) and thus Rodin began to use the title.
This is just one aspect of a sculpture that went through several phases of evolution, and through these various stages took on its universal significance as a…
