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You are here: Home / Language / What Is the Name of the “Thinker” in Auguste Rodin’s Famous Statue and Where Was He From?

What Is the Name of the “Thinker” in Auguste Rodin’s Famous Statue and Where Was He From?

June 16, 2020 by Karen Hill

The French sculptor Auguste Rodin’s statue commonly called The Thinker (Le penseur) is one of the best-known pieces of art in the world.

Yet when Rodin (1840-1917) first cast a small plaster version in 1880, he meant it as a depiction of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (circa 1265-1321) pondering his great allegorical epic The Divine Comedy in front of the Gates of Hell.

In fact, Rodin named the sculpture The Poet.

It was an obscure critic, unfamiliar with Dante, who misnamed the masterpiece with the title we use today, The Thinker.

Rodin’s statue is naked because the sculptor wanted a heroic classical figure to represent Thought as Poetry.

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Filed Under: Language

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

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