"The Thinker": little-known facts about the creation of the famous sculpture by Auguste Rodin. Auguste Rodin

For more than a century, audiences have admired the masterpieces of Auguste Rodin. This French sculptor became an innovator in his field. The master's talent was so great that he was even accused of making plaster casts directly from the faces of the sitters. The crowning creation of Rodin is called the sculpture "The Thinker". Some little-known facts of its creation will be discussed.

The Thinker was originally conceived as part of the Gates of Hell

Initially, the sculpture in the form of a sitting hunched over man was to become the central figure in Rodin's work The Gates of Hell. In terms of size, it was planned to be much more modest than The Thinker, which is located in the Paris Rodin Museum.

"Gates of Hell", cast after the death of the sculptor

When the decision was made to build the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1880, Auguste Rodin was commissioned to create massive bronze doors for him. The sculptor decided to make bas-reliefs on them based on Dante's Divine Comedy. However, for 37 years of work, neither the order nor the museum itself was ever completed. The Gates of Hell was cast into bronze only after Rodin's death.

Auguste Rodin - great French sculptor

Rodin's innovation was that he was able to convey the state and mood only with the help of a pose. As a model, the sculptor invited the Frenchman Jean Beau, a muscular boxer who performed in the Red Light District. By the way, the man posed for the master several times for other works.

The Thinker by Michelangelo. Statue of Lorenzo Medici (1526-1531)

Rodin originally called his sculpture "The Poet". This title supports the theory that the statue was intended to be a depiction of Dante Alighieri. But, perhaps due to the fact that the tall and thin Dante in the 19th century was by no means associated with muscular sculpture, many saw an allegorical meaning in it. In any case, the name "Thinker" is associated with the casters, who named the statue that way, because they considered it similar to Michelangelo's sculpture of the same name.

"Three Shadows" by Auguste Rodin

The Thinker was not the only independent sculpture from the Gates of Hell. Rodin presented to the public The Kiss (1886), Eve (1883), Ugolino (1882), Three Shadows and other works from this series.

"The Thinker" - a statue installed in the Rodin Museum in Paris

After The Thinker gained immense popularity, Auguste Rodin cast 10 copies of this statue in bronze. And after the death of the sculptor in 1917, the rights to cast were transferred to the people of France, and this figure increased to 20 copies. To date, The Thinkers in plaster or bronze are presented in galleries in Melbourne, Geneva, Washington, Paris.

Rodin's talent is so great that many sculptors are still trying to imitate him, but in their own way. So the Italian master creates original figures from a metal mesh.

Thinker: A thinker is a person endowed with the ability of deep, philosophical thinking, a philosopher. "Thinker" sculpture by Auguste Rodin ... Wikipedia

I take a block of marble and cut off everything superfluous from it. Auguste Rodin, following Michelangelo The limit of the achievement of art is outlined only by the means of another art. Most wonderful is the sculpture of Michelangelo on the frescoes of the Last Judgment. Grigory Landau ... ... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms

Auguste Rodin The Thinker, 1880 1882 (fr. Le Penseur) Bronze. Height: 181 cm Rodin Museum, Paris The Thinker (fr ... Wikipedia

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This term has other meanings, see Philosopher (meanings). "Thinker" redirects here; For Rodin's sculpture, see The Thinker (sculpture) ... Wikipedia

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Books

Spiritual testament, Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol (1809-1852) enchanted and continues to enchant millions of readers with the grandeur of his talent. Gogol's creative path is the path of comprehending Russian life, ...
Spiritual testament, Gogol Nikolai Vasilyevich. Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol (1809–1852) enchanted and continues to enchant millions of readers with the grandeur of his talent. Gogol's creative path is the path of comprehending Russian life, ...

The whole life of Auguste Rodin is a struggle for the right to live and create in his own style, destroying the canons. For many years he was an unrecognized genius, forced to earn a piece of bread by making tasteless decorative figurines for rich mansions. His first serious work, The Man with the Broken Nose, failed miserably, but now his sculptures are kept in the best museums in the world.

"Thinker"

This is the most famous sculpture of the master. Here, as in many of Rodin's works, his passion for Dante and the Divine Comedy, as well as the traditions of Michelangelo, affected. Rodin worked on The Thinker for two years, from 1880 to 1882. The original sculpture is on display at the Musée Rodin in Paris. According to the original idea of the author, the sculpture was called "The Poet" and was part of the "Gates of Hell" composition.

Over time, Rodin's idea became more complicated, the image of Dante was replaced by the universal image of the creator. Rodin endowed his hero with physical strength, but performed it emphatically allegorically, without real prototypes. Rodin posed for one of his favorite sitters, the Frenchman Jean Beau, from whom he made many of his sculptures. The young man was engaged in boxing, participated in battles in the red light district in Paris. He had a perfect body and strong muscles. The Thinker was first publicly exhibited in 1888 in Copenhagen. In 1902, a sculpture enlarged to 181 cm was cast in bronze, which Rodin exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1904. In 1906, the bronze "Thinker" was installed in the Pantheon. At the same time, Rodin, who spoke at the opening, said that The Thinker is a monument to the French workers. In 1922 this bronze was transferred to the Rodin Museum in the Hotel Biron. By the way, there are more than 20 bronze and plaster copies of the statue in different cities scattered around the world. In particular, a bronze copy of the sculpture is installed on the sculptor's grave in Meudon, a suburb of Paris. Other copies of The Thinker are installed at the gates of the Philadelphia Rodin Museum and at the gates of Columbia University.

"Bronze Age"

In 1876, Rodin traveled to Italy, where he visited Genoa, Florence, Rome, Naples and Venice. He wanted to get acquainted with the art of the Renaissance, with the great sculptors of the past - Michelangelo and Donatello. This journey sparked a love for Gothic architecture that Rodin retained throughout his life. Upon his return from Italy, Rodin spent about 18 months working on the sculpture that is now known as the Bronze Age. For her, he used an unprofessional sitter - a Belgian soldier, who impressed the sculptor with his well-developed muscles.

The sculpture was created under the clear influence of Michelangelo's Dying Slave. At first it was a plaster sculpture "Defeated" with a spear in his left hand, as a monument to the courage of French soldiers. But then Rodin changed the "meaning" of his work in such a way that they saw in it the awakening, and not the suffering of a person. He removed the spear and gave the sculpture the title "Bronze Age" (other titles Rodin considered were "Spring Awakening" and "Prehistoric Man"). However, Rodin's skill in depicting the nude caused accusations that he passed off a cast from the sitter's body as a sculpture. Rodin received the support of many artists and was acquitted. In 1880, the same sculpture, cast in bronze, was exhibited at the Salon again.

"Citizens of Calais"

Rodin dedicated this work to a well-known episode of the Hundred Years War. In 1346, Edward III approached the key French fortress of Calais, the siege continued for almost a year. French attempts to break the blockade failed. Finally, when hunger forced the citizens to start negotiations for surrender, the English king demanded that six of the most noble citizens be handed over to him, intending to put them to death. The first to volunteer to give his life for the sake of saving the city was one of the main rich men, Eustache de Saint-Pierre. Others followed his example. But Queen Philippa was filled with pity for these emaciated people, and in the name of her unborn child, she begged forgiveness for them before her husband.

The idea to perpetuate the memory of prominent countrymen was discussed in Calais for a long time. Rodin got to work. He worked on a group of six figures from 1884 to 1888. Customers considered the work controversial, they expected a sculpture in the form of a single figure, symbolizing Eustache de Saint-Pierre. Before Rodin, monuments from the pedestal dominated the audience. Rodin, on the other hand, insisted on the abandonment of the pedestal, so that the figures were on the same level with the audience (although they were made somewhat larger than human growth). However, in 1889 he was greeted with universal admiration. Moreover, the city authorities nevertheless installed a pedestal, the will of the sculptor, so that the figures were about the same height as people, they fulfilled it only after his death.

"Kiss"

This marble sculpture, created and presented in 1889 at the World Exhibition in Paris. Just like The Thinker, the depicted embracing couple was to be part of the relief group that adorns the Gates of Hell. She was later removed from there and replaced with another pair of lovers. Rodin called her "Francesca da Rimini", in honor of the noble Italian lady of the 13th century depicted on her. She fell in love with her husband's younger brother Giovanni Malatesta, Paolo.

While reading the history of Lancelot and Guinevere, their husband discovered and killed them. On the sculpture, Paolo can be seen holding a book in his hand. The lovers do not actually touch each other with their lips, as if hinting that they were killed without committing a sin. Renaming the sculpture to a more abstract one - Kiss, was made by critics who saw it in 1887. At the same time, in his female characters, Rodin pays tribute to women, they are not only in the power of men, but also equal partners in the passion that has gripped both. The apparent eroticism of the sculpture has caused much discussion. A bronze copy of The Kiss (74 cm high) was sent to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The copy was deemed unacceptable for public viewing and moved to a separate small room, with access by personal application.

In 1888, the French government ordered Rodin the first full-scale marble version of The Kiss for the World Exhibition, but it was put on public display only in 1898 at the Paris Salon. The sculpture gained such popularity that the Barberdinni Company offered Rodin a contract for a limited number of reduced bronze copies. In 1900, the statue moved to the Museum in the Luxembourg Gardens, and in 1918 it was placed in the Musée Rodin, where it remains to this day.

The Thinker by Auguste Rodin
For more than a century, audiences have admired the masterpieces of Auguste Rodin. This French sculptor became an innovator in his field. The master's talent was so great that he was even accused of making plaster casts directly from the faces of the sitters. The crowning creation of Rodin is called the sculpture "The Thinker". Some little-known facts of its creation will be discussed in this review.

Initially, The Thinker was conceived as part of the Gates of Hell.
Initially, the sculpture in the form of a sitting hunched over man was to become the central figure in Rodin's work The Gates of Hell. In terms of size, it was planned to be much more modest than The Thinker, which is located in the Paris Rodin Museum.

"Gates of Hell", cast after the death of the sculptor.
When the decision was made to build the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1880, Auguste Rodin was commissioned to create massive bronze doors for him. The sculptor decided to make bas-reliefs on them based on Dante's Divine Comedy. However, for 37 years of work, neither the order nor the museum itself was ever completed. The Gates of Hell was cast into bronze only after Rodin's death.

Auguste Rodin is a great French sculptor.
Rodin's innovation was that he was able to convey the state and mood only with the help of a pose. As a model, the sculptor invited the Frenchman Jean Beau, a muscular boxer who performed in the Red Light District. By the way, the man posed for the master several times for other works.

The Thinker by Michelangelo. Statue of Lorenzo Medici (1526-1531).
Rodin originally called his sculpture "The Poet". This title supports the theory that the statue was intended to be a depiction of Dante Alighieri. But, perhaps due to the fact that the tall and thin Dante in the 19th century was by no means associated with muscular sculpture, many saw an allegorical meaning in it. In any case, the name "Thinker" is associated with the casters, who named the statue that way, because they considered it similar to Michelangelo's sculpture of the same name.

"Three Shadows" by Auguste Rodin.
The Thinker was not the only independent sculpture from the Gates of Hell. Rodin presented to the public The Kiss (1886), Eve (1883), Ugolino (1882), Three Shadows and other works from this series.

The Thinker is a statue in the Musée Rodin in Paris.
After The Thinker gained immense popularity, Auguste Rodin cast 10 copies of this statue in bronze. And after the death of the sculptor in 1917, the rights to cast were transferred to the people of France, and this figure increased to 20 copies. To date, The Thinkers in plaster or bronze are presented in galleries in Melbourne, Geneva, Washington, Paris.

The sculpture "The Thinker" by Rodin is one of the most recognizable in the world, not only among art connoisseurs, but also among people who are far from it. The ingenious master was able to convey the mood and state of his character solely with the help of a pose. Now the sculpture can be seen not only in Paris, its numerous copies are exhibited in the main museums of the world.

about the author

The French master Francois Auguste Rene Rodin is one of the founders of modern sculpture. He was born in Paris on November 12, 1840. After graduating from the École Gratuite de Dessin, he repeatedly tried to enter the School of Fine Arts. In his youth, he made a living doing the work of a decorator, and most of the famous works, including the sculpture "The Thinker", Rodin created already in adulthood.

At the age of 60, the sculptor became famous, he carried out orders from the richest and most famous people of his time, among whom were Bernard Shaw, Georges Clemenceau, chemist Marcelin Berthelot and the President of Argentina. In 1914-1915. he creates a bust of Pope Benedict XV. High earnings allowed Rodin to organize his own workshop and hire young talented sculptors as assistants, including Antoine Bourdelle, Aristide Maillol.

Rodin died at the age of 77 in 1917 from pneumonia at his villa in Meudon, leaving all his works and manuscripts in his will to the state.

Creative method and style

The main motive that can be traced in the work of Rodin is the image of a human figure in motion. In an effort to convey it, he considered the sculpture not as a static object, but as a certain center of moving masses. The academic tradition of this type of art dictated certain rules, in particular that the head of the figure should be located either straight or aligned with the line of the supporting leg. One of the first to break this dogma was Auguste Rodin. The Thinker, with its unique composition and technique, is the best proof of its author's innovation.

Rodin did not use the services of professional sitters. He hired ordinary people, and often to practice a certain movement, they simply walked in front of the sculptor in the nude, while he made sketches from clay and painted them.

The second main feature of Rodin's sculpture is its emotionality. All his characters are overwhelmed with feelings (grief, despair, pain, love), and he achieved maximum persuasiveness when displaying these states. Rodin said that his "Thinker" thinks not only with the brain, as evidenced by frown eyebrows, compressed lips and flared nostrils, but with the whole body, every muscle of the back and legs, arms.

Composition "Gates of Hell"

At the time when The Thinker was being created, Rodin was still little known. In 1885, he received an order from the government to create a gate for the State Museum in Paris. The master started work only three years later and never finished it. The sculpture was cast after his death. "The Gates of Hell" is the work of his life, now occupying a well-deserved place in the museum dedicated to the sculptor.

For us, it is interesting because if you pay attention to the upper part of the gate (pictured above), you will see the familiar figure of a thinker in the center of the composition. The non-standard and original idea of the master was the result of a true admiration for the Divine Comedy by Dante. There are 108 figures in the composition of the gate, most of them are variants of human vices that will inevitably appear before him when the doors to the afterlife open. The statue of the "Thinker" by Rodin, in fact, is an enlarged copy of the figure on the gate. The author gave it the features of external resemblance to Dante, which is why the sculpture was originally called "The Poet". However, later she acquired a universal image of the creator. According to Rodin himself, his thinker asks eternal questions: “Who am I?”, “Where did I come from and where do I go?”, “What is my goal?”.

Description of the sculpture

Initially, the author created a small sculpture, which had a height of about 76 cm. It was intended for display at the Gates of Hell museum. Work on it lasted two years (1880-1882), and only in 1902 was a statue in full human growth created.

Incredible realism is what first of all impresses the viewer of The Thinker. Rodin created it from life-size bronze. The sculpture is placed on a stone pedestal and represents a naked male figure. Being a fan of Michelangelo's work, the author performed his work in the best traditions of the style of the famous Italian. The height of the statue is about 181 cm. A naked man sits on a rock, leaning his elbow on his knee. His whole figure reflects deep thoughtfulness.

Where can you see the sculpture?

The Thinker was first presented to the public in 1888 in Copenhagen. A full-length copy of Rodin exhibited in a salon in Paris in 1904. Two years later, a bronze sculpture was installed in the Pantheon. As Rodin said at the opening, The Thinker (photo can be seen in the article) is a monument to French workers, which is not entirely consistent with the original idea of \u200b\u200bthe work. After the death of the author, the sculpture was transferred in 1922 to the museum named after him in the Biron Hotel, where it is still located.

Copies of The Thinker

The stocky figure of the thinker for contemporaries was the personification of titanic power and strong mental tension. In the future, it was she who began to be used as a symbol of philosophy. After the presentation to the general public, the sculpture fell in love with everyone who saw it. Even during the lifetime of the author, with his permission, 10 bronze copies were cast, which dispersed not only in France, but throughout Europe. Now there are 20 official copies, which are presented in various parts of the world. Including sculptures in Copenhagen, at the gates of the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, in front of the building of the Department of Philosophy of Columbia University, in the gallery of Melbourne, Geneva, etc. At the request of Rodin himself, a reduced copy of The Thinker was installed on his grave in Meudon.

Model for sculpture

The sculpture "The Thinker" is considered to be the pinnacle of the French sculptor's creativity. Rodin with brilliant skill conveyed not only the inner torment of the character, but also the beauty of the athletic body. You don't have to be an expert in anatomy to understand that muscle plasticity and proportions are just perfect. As a model, Rodin invited the little-known French boxer Jean Beau, who earned his living mainly by performing in the red light district in Paris. It was from him that the sculptor created a hero endowed with physical strength. However, Jean Bo, whose photo you see above, posed not only for this work, but also for some others.