The Thinker (Rodin), Paris

The Thinker is Auguste Rodin's bronze of a seated man lost in thought. The best-known monumental cast, about 185 centimetres tall, stands in the sculpture garden of the Musée Rodin at 77 Rue de Varenne in Paris's 7th arrondissement. Seeing it requires a museum ticket (€14 standard), and it suits anyone visiting the Rodin museum or interested in modern sculpture.

A figure first modelled for The Gates of Hell

The figure began with a commission of 1880, when the French state asked Rodin for a set of bronze doors for a planned museum of decorative arts in Paris. Rodin based the doors, The Gates of Hell, on Dante's Divine Comedy, and modelled a seated figure in 1880 and 1881 to sit at the top, looking down on the scenes below. He first called it The Poet, linked to Dante. Some critics doubt that reading because the figure is nude, and it is now widely seen as an image of thought itself.

The figure soon took on a life of its own. Rodin exhibited it separately at the end of the 1880s as The Thinker, and between 1902 and 1904 he had it enlarged to monumental size. The large version was shown to the public in 1904.

From the Panthéon to the Rodin garden

After a public subscription organised by admirers, a large bronze was bought and installed in front of the Panthéon in 1906 as a gift to the City of Paris. In 1922 it moved to the garden of the Musée Rodin, where it stands today. Many other casts exist; the first bronze of the small version, from 1884, is in the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, and another monumental cast stands at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The pose shows Rodin's interest in the body. The right elbow rests on the left knee, so the whole figure is tense, as if thinking were physical work.

Comparing the statue with the Gates in the same garden

The statue stands inside the museum grounds. The same garden holds The Gates of Hell, so you can compare the large figure with its original small setting at the top of the doors, along with The Burghers of Calais and Balzac. Inside the house are The Kiss and the Camille Claudel room.

The standard museum ticket is €14, with free entry on the first Sunday of each month from October to March and for eligible visitors such as young people and arts students. The museum and garden open Tuesday to Sunday, 10am to 6:30pm, with last entry at 5:45pm; they are closed on Mondays and on 1 January, 1 May and 25 December.