Property from a PRIVATE COLLECTION

Property from A PRIVATE COLLECTION

Details

Property from a PRIVATE COLLECTION

AUGUSTE RODIN (1840-1917)

Le penseur

signed on the top of the base 'A. Rodin', inscribed on the back of the base 'ALEXIS RUDIER. FONDEUR. PARIS.'--with raised signature inside 'A. Rodin'--bronze with brown patina
Height: 14¾in. (37.4cm.)
Original version conceived circa 1880; this bronze version cast at a later date

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1944, no. 56 (large plaster version illustrated, p. 24)
A.E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, pp. 52-57 (large bronze version illustrated, p. 54)
R. Descharnes and J.-F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967, p. 74 (large bronze version illustrated)
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 88 (another cast illustrated, pl. 11)
J. de Caso and P. Sanders, Rodin's Thinker, Significant Aspects, Burlingame, California, 1973, pp. 1-30 (large bronze version illustrated, pls. 1-6)
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 111-120, no. 3 (large bronze version illustrated, p. 113)
A.E. Elsen, Rodin's Thinker and the Dilemmas of Modern Public Sculpture, New Haven and London, 1985
P. Kjellberg, Les bronzes du XIXe siècle, dictionnaire des sculpteurs, Paris, 1987, p. 582 (another cast illustrated)
R. Butler, Rodin, The Shape of Genius, New Haven, 1993, pp. 422-431 (small plaster version illustrated, pl. 63; large plaster version illustrated, p. 175; large bronze version illustrated, pl. 177)

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 work 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. The 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, and an enlargement which he presented to the City of Paris in 1906, and was moved to the Musée Rodin in 1922.