Public collection via the Cleveland Museum of Art
AT-00011026The Genius of the Sculptor
About the Artwork
Auguste Rodin repeatedly explored the theme of creative male genius in major works, such as the famous Thinker, a cast of which sits outside the Cleveland Museum of Art on the south terrace. In this drawing, Rodin depicted the artist in active thought with his hand on his head, accompanied by a wingless “genius” floating above him. He derived this symbol of inner creative energy from the traditional subject of the winged muse, examples of which also appear on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling as companions to God the Father.
Provenance
?-1932: Marcel Louis Guérin [1873-1948; Lugt 1872b], Paris 1932: (his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 9, 1932, no. 70) 1976: (Shepherd Gallery, New York, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH) 1976-2008: Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH 2008-: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Exhibition history
French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002). Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (organizer) (June 18-September 18, 2022) https://www.clarkart.edu/microsites/rodin/.
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
- c. 1880–83
- Medium
- pen and brown ink
- Dimensions
- Sheet: 26.3 x 18.9 cm (10 3/8 x 7 7/16 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- Drawing
- Department
- Drawings
- Credit line
- Bequest of Muriel Butkin
- Accession no.
- 2008.404
More by Auguste Rodin in museum collections
Open-access museum record · AT-00011026
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