The Thinker|Auguste Rodin |Search Collection | The National Museum of Western Art

Updated 17 April 2025

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Auguste Rodin

Paris, 1840 - Meudon, 1917

The Thinker

Date	1881-82
Materials and Techniques	bronze
Size（cm）	71.5 x 45 x 60
Inscriptions	Signed right side of base: A. Rodin; foundry mark lower right back of base: Alexis. Rudier / Fondeur. PARIS
Credit Line	Matsukata Collection
Standard ref.	M1287
Category	Sculptures
Collection Number	S.1959-0039

This sculpture was originally conceived as a poet watching over hell in meditation, who appears at the top centre of Rodin's masterpiece, The Gates of Hell. Rodin later decided to place "a naked man, seated upon a rock, his feet drawn under him, his fist against his teeth, he dreams". Once "the fertile thought slowly elaborates itself within his brain", "he is no longer dreamer, he is creator". The Thinker was turned into a universal existence continuously in eternal thought of those destined to death, i.e. the (tragic) fate of the human being. From 1902 to ca. 1904, The Thinker was produced in an enlarged version, one of which stands in the forecourt of The National Museum of Western Art. (Source: The Digital Gallery. 1999-2006)

Provenance

Bought from Musée Rodin by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe through Léonce Bénédite, ca. August 1919, as ‘Le penseur, demi-nature’ (Fr. 12,000) [see several letters between Bénédite and Suzuki & Co., August 1919, in Archives of Musée Rodin, Paris; copy in NMWA curatorial files]; sequestered by French government, 1944; vested in French government under San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1952; transferred from French to Japanese government, 23 January 1959; entered into NMWA, April 1959.

Exhibition History

1966: Rodin, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 23 July 1966 - 11 September 1966, cat. no. 17
1985: , The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, 6 April 1985 - 6 May 1985, cat. no. 4, col. repr.
1989: Rodin et la Porte de l’Enfer (Rodin and the Gates of Hell), National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 21 October 1989 - 17 December 1989, cat. no. 6
1994: Kokuritsu Seiyo Bijyutsukan shozo sakuhin ni yoru yoroppa bijyutsu eno shotai, Karatsu City Library, 12 November 1994 - 11 December 1994, cat. no. 11, col. repr.
1995: Modern Japanese Art-Between the East and the West, Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, 1 November 1995 - 30 November 1995, cat. no. 119, col. repr.
1996: The Crossing Visions: European and Modern Japanese Art from the Collections of The National Museum of Western Art & The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 20 July 1996 - 8 September 1996, cat. no. 106
2006: August Rodin / Eugène Carrière, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 7 March 2006 - 4 June 2006, cat. no. 67
2015: NO MUSEUM, NO LIFE?: Art-Museum Encyclopedia to Come: From the Collections of the National Museums of Art, The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, 16 June 2015 - 13 September 2015, cat. no. P-1
2016: Odysseys, National Archaeological Museum of Athens, 3 October 2016 - 3 April 2017
2017: [Prints and Drawings Exhibition] Getting to the Gates of Hell: Rodin's Album Fenaille Drawings for Dante's Divine Comedy, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Prints and Drawings Gallery, 21 October 2017 - 28 January 2018, cat. no. 132
2019: The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey: Upon the 60th Anniversary of the NMWA, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11 June 2019 - 23 September 2019, cat. no. 80, col. repr.
2022: Renoir—Monet—Gauguin: Images of a Floating World: the Collections of Kōjirō Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus, Museum Folkwang, 6 February 2022 - 15 May 2022
2024: Does the Future Sleep Here?: Revisiting the Museum's Response to Contemporary Art after 65 Years, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 12 March 2024 - 12 May 2024

Bibliography

1937: Bourdelle, Antoine. La sculpture et Rodin. Emile-Paul, 1937, p. 55.
1966: Butler, Ruth. The Early Work of Rodin and Its Background. UMI Research Press, 1966, pp. 218-223.
1967: Champigneulle, Bernard. Rodin. London, Thames and Hadson, 1967, pp. 130-133.
1969: Jianou, lonel et Goldscheider, C. Rodin. Paris, Arted Editions d'Art, 1969, p. 88.
1976: Tancock, John L. The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1976, no. 3.
1979: Auguste Rodin: Plastik, Zeichungen, Graphik (exh. cat.). Berlin, Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin/DDR, 1979, no. 9.
1984: Rodin (exh. cat.). Martigny, Fondation Pierre Gianadda, 1984 , no. 6.
1985: Ogiwara Morie to Nihon no Kindai Chokoku. [Urawa], The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, 1985 , no. 4.
1986: Lampert, Catherine. Rodin Sculpture and Drawing. London, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1986, no. 74.
1988: Rodin: Selected Works from The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. The National Museum of Western Art ed. Kurayoshi Museum, 1988, no. 12.
1989: Claude Monet-Auguste Rodin (exh. cat.). Paris, Musée Rodin, 1989, no. 24.
1989: Rodin et la Porte de l'Enfer (exh. cat.). The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 1989, no. 6.
1990: The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. S-53.
1990: Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette. "Torse du Belvédère". Le Corps en morceaux. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, 5 February - 3 June 1990; Schirn Kunsthalle, Francfort, 23 June - 26 Aug. 1990, Réunion des musées nationaux, 1990, pp. 110-111.
1992: The French Modern Art, from The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (exh. cat.). The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, ed. Okinawa, Urasoe Art Museum, 1992, pp. 46-47, cat. no. 36, col. repr
1994: Kokuritsu Seiyo Bijutsukan Shozo Sakuhin ni Yoru Europa Bijutsu e no Shotai (exh. cat.). Karatsu City Library; National Museum of Wetsern Art. Karatsu, Karatsu City Library, 1994, cat. no. 11, col. repr.
1995: Modern Japanese Art: Between the East and the West (exh. cat.). National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, ed. [Nagasaki], Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, 1995, pp. 124, 143, 151, cat. no. 119, col. repr.
1996: Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette. Rodin: le musée et ses collections. Paris, Éditions Scala; Musée Rodin, 1996, pp. 36-37.
1996: Auguste Rodin: Eros und Leidenschaft (exh. cat.). Wien, Kunsthistorisches, 1996, pp. 166-168, no. 16.
1997: Rodin and Michelangelo: A Study in Artistic Inspiration. Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1997, no. 19.
1999: French Sculpture. Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, 1999, no. 117-178
2000: Butler, Ruth. European Sculpture of Nineteenth Century. Washington, National Gallery of Art, 2000, pp.　321-326.
2001: Marraud, Hélène. Rodin et le Japon (exh. cat.). [Tokyo], Gendai Chokoku Center, 2001 , no. 191-192.
2001: Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette. Rodin en 1900: l'exposition de l'alma (exh. cat.). Musée du Luxembourg, 12 March - 15 July 2001, Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 2001, no. 113.
2002: Victor Hugo vu par Rodin (exh. cat.). Musée des beaux-arts et d'archéologie de Besançon, 4 October 2002 - 27 January, 2003. Besançon, Paris/ Somogy édition d'art; Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie de Besançon, 2002, no. 35.
2003: Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette. D'ombre et de marbre: Hugo face à Rodin (exh. cat.). Paris, Maison de Victor Hugo, 2003, no. 2.
2003: Elsen, Albert. Rodin's Art: The Rodin Collection of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University. Barryte, Bernard ed. New York, Oxford University Press, 2003, no. 38.
2004: Mitchell, Claudine. "Rodin and the Baudelairian Legacy: Arthur Symons on the sculptor as Poet". Rodin: The Zola of Sculpture. Aldershot, Ashgate Publishing, 2004, pp. 73-94.
2005: Le parcours d'un génie. Kyoto, Tankosya, 2005, nos. 21-22, p. 356.
2019: The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of the Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2019, pp. 161, 163, 362, cat. no. 80, col. repr.
2019: The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 2: Sculpture, Drawings, Prints and Decorative Arts and Other Works, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2019, cat. no. 1287, col. repr.
2022: Renoir—Monet—Gauguin: Images of a Floating World: the Collections of Kōjirō Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus (exh.cat.). Engel, Nadine; Herlemann, Rebecca, eds. Berlin, Hatje Cantz, [2022], p. 229, col. repr.
2024: Does the Future Sleep Here?: Revisiting the Museum's Response to Contemporary Art after 65 Years (exh. cat.). Shinfuji, Atsushi; Mochizuki, Kaoru, eds. [Tokyo], Culture Convenience Club; Bijutsu Shuppan-sha, 2024, pp. 84-85, 303, col. repr.

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