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.
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 | Original | Bronze | 1902 | Bought by Mr. Burrell in 1922. Many fingerprints and marks were left by the sculptor. | [5][6] | |
University of Louisville | 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 | 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 | 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] |
The AsiaUniversity purchased Rodin'sThe Thinker as the highlight object of the Museum collection.
Donation of Rodin's The Thinker:A Generous Birthday Give [sic] to NTHU