Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00010649The Thinker
About the 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.
Inscriptions
signed on base near sinister foot: "A. Rodin."
Provenance
purchased from the artist in 1916.
Exhibition history
Conserving the Past for the Future. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-May 6, 2001). Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).
Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917)
- Date
- 1880–81
- Medium
- bronze
- Dimensions
- Overall: 182.9 x 98.4 x 142.2 cm (72 x 38 3/4 x 56 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
- Classification
- Sculpture
- Department
- Modern European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Gift of Ralph King
- Accession no.
- 1917.42
More by Auguste Rodin in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00010649
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