Le penseur

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Le penseur
signed on the top of the base 'A. Rodin', inscribed with foundry mark on the back of the base 'ALEXIS.RUDIER FONDEUR.PARIS'--with raised signature inside 'A. Rodin'
bronze with brown and green patina
Height: 14¾in. (37.5cm.)
Conceived circa 1880; this bronze version cast before 1952

Provenance

M. Josephson, Neuilly-sur-Seine (1939)

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1944, no. 40 (large bronze version illustrated)
A.E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 54 (large bronze version illustrated)
B. Champigneulle, Rodin, London, 1967, no. 54 (large bronze version illustrated, p. 131)
R. Descharnes and J.-F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967, p. 74 (large bronze version illustrated)
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, pl. 11 (another cast illustrated)
J. de Caso and P.B. Sanders, Rodin's Thinker, Significant Aspects, Burlingame, California, 1973, pls. 1 and 2 (large bronze version illustrated)
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 111-120, nos. 3a and 3b (large bronze version illustrated, pp. 113 and 115)

Lot Essay

Rodin conceived Le penseur around 1880 as the heroic figure of Man who would dominate the tympanum of The Gates of Hell. Initially the sculptor planned to depict Dante surrounded by the characters of his Divine Comedy, but later decided to produce a more generalized figure which would symbolize creative genius. This monumental figure displays the influence of Michelangelo, whose sculpture made a strong impression on Rodin when he first visited Italy in 1875. Rodin considered Le penseur to be a subject independent of The Gates of Hell, and first exhibited it in this manner at Copenhagen in 1888. This sculpture proved to be the most famous and popular of all his works, and Rodin cast the subject in three sizes to meet the growing demand; a reduced version (of which the present cast is one), a version in the original 27-inch size (see sale, Christie's, New York, Nov. 13, 1996, lot 6), and an enlargement which he presented to the City of Paris in 1906 and was moved to the Musée Rodin in 1922.