Lot Essay
The original conception for Le Penseur was as the centrepiece for the tympanum of Les Portes de l'Enfer. The thinker would be Dante himself surrounded by all the characters of the Divine Comedy, but as Rodin worked on the project his idea changed from the particular to the general and the figure came to represent the broader concept of the poet and creative genius.
Le Penseur belongs to the group of early works inspired by the sculpture of Michelangelo which Rodin saw on his visit to Italy in 1875. He described the figure in 1917 'What makes my thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes' (Saturday Night, Toronto, Dec. 1917).
Le Penseur was very popular with collectors and institutions so Rodin had it cast in three sizes; as a small reduced version (of which this is one), in the original size and an englargement made in 1902 for presentation to the city of Paris in 1906, first sited in front of the Panthéon but moved to the Musée Rodin in 1902.
Le Penseur belongs to the group of early works inspired by the sculpture of Michelangelo which Rodin saw on his visit to Italy in 1875. He described the figure in 1917 'What makes my thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes' (Saturday Night, Toronto, Dec. 1917).
Le Penseur was very popular with collectors and institutions so Rodin had it cast in three sizes; as a small reduced version (of which this is one), in the original size and an englargement made in 1902 for presentation to the city of Paris in 1906, first sited in front of the Panthéon but moved to the Musée Rodin in 1902.