{
"data": {
"id": 97797,
"accession_number": "1917.42",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Thinker, 1880\u201381. Auguste Rodin (French, 1840\u20131917). Bronze; overall: 182.9 x 98.4 x 142.2 cm (72 x 38 3/4 x 56 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Ralph King, 1917.42",
"current_location": "SE South Entrance",
"title": "The Thinker",
"creation_date": "1880\u201381",
"creation_date_earliest": 1880,
"creation_date_latest": 1881,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, 19th century"
],
"technique": "bronze",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Modern European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Mod Euro - Sculpture 1800-1960",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 182.9 x 98.4 x 142.2 cm (72 x 38 3/4 x 56 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 1.829,
"height_inch": 72,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 0.984,
"width_inch": 38,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"depth": 1.422,
"depth_inch": 56,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "signed on base near sinister foot: \"A. Rodin.\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 188842,
"title": "Conserving the Past for the Future",
"description": "Conserving the Past for the Future. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 4-May 6, 2001).",
"opening_date": "2001-03-04T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 182153,
"title": "Monet to Dal\u00ed: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Monet to Dal\u00ed: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).",
"opening_date": "2006-05-27T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "purchased from the artist in 1916.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This enlarged version of The Thinker is one of less than 10 cast during Rodin's lifetime.",
"description": "The Thinker was first developed as part of Rodin's The Gates of Hell, a sculptured doorway for a proposed museum of decorative arts in Paris. Intended to be part of a relief directly above the doors, the rugged figure was originally conceived as a generalized image of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265\u20131321), who wrote the Divine Comedy.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60759083"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1917.42-the-thinker"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Rodin, Auguste, Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, Christina Buley-Uribe, Patrick R. Crowley, C. D. Dickerson, Laure de Margerie, Ve\u0301ronique Mattiussi, Elyse Nelson, Jennifer A. Thompson, and Nora M. Rosengarten. Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. Williamstown, Massachusetts : Clark Art Institute, 2022.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 28, 129, 235, 238; reproduced: p. 238, fig. 9.18",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Margerie, Laure de, Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, Elisabeth Lyman, Miriam Rosen, Cole Swensen, and Susan Wise. French Sculpture: An American Passion. [Ghent] : Snoeck, 2023.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 408 and 441; Reproduced: p. 407, fig. 4 and 441, fig. 5",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "\"Rodin Memorial Exhibition.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 9 (1917): 162-63.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 162-163",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25136150"
},
{
"citation": "\"Modern Sculpture at the Museum.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 6 (1917): 108-09.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: Front Matter; Mentioned: p. 108",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25136110"
},
{
"citation": "\"Report of the Museum's Second Year.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 5, no. 6/7 (1918): 69-79.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 70",
"url": "www.jstor.org/stable/25136208"
},
{
"citation": "Milliken, William. \"Paintings.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 34, no. 2 (February 1942): 25-26",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 25",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25141340"
},
{
"citation": "Tacha, Athena. Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1967.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 96-97, cat. no. X; Reproduced: p. [53], Plate 68",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/RodinSculpture/page/n110"
},
{
"citation": "Tacha, Athena. A Supplement to Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 130S, cat. no. X",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \"The Year in Review for 1979.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (1980): 58-99.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 60",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25159667"
},
{
"citation": "Franklin, David. The Cleveland Museum of Art. London: Scala Arts & Heritage Publishers Ltd., 2012.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 60 - 61",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Valencia, Natalia. \"When I Do Count the Clock That Tells the Time.\" In Number Eleven: Cyprien Gaillard. Julia Stoschek Foundation, ed., 14-36. Dusseldorf: Julia Stoschek Collection, 2015.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: P. 30",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "\"Westfalen.\" In Number Eleven: Cyprien Gaillard. Julia Stoschek Foundation, ed., 68-73. Dusseldorf: Julia Stoschek Collection, 2015.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: P. 69-70",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Hudak, Brittany Mariel. \"Masked Men, Hatchets, and Bombs: Frank Oriti's Clarity, Rodin's The Thinker, and the Silencing of Art Vandalism.\" Collective Arts Network. CAN Journal, Winter 2015-2016.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 65-67; Reproduced: p. 66",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Tableau. [Utrecht]: [Tableau], 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and mentioned; p. 130",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Anonymous. \"Leftovers/I was Opened.\" Cabinet 65(Autumn/Winter 2017/2018).",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 18-21",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Robinson, William H. and Dansereau-Tackett, Julie. \"Rodin--100 Years: Commemorating the centennial of the French master's death.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 57, no. 5 (September/October 2017): 8-9.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 8",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2017-05/page/n3/mode/2up"
},
{
"citation": "Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. \"Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art.\" CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 85; Reproduced: p. 86",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Demes, Francis, Jaime Juarez, and James Clark. \"Challenges Requiring New Thinking in Museum Security.\" Collections 20, no. 2 (June 2024): 290-297.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 294-295, fig. 4",
"url": ""
}
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"creditline": "Gift of Ralph King",
"image_credit": null,
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"id": 5925,
"description": "Auguste Rodin (French, 1840\u20131917)",
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"accession_date": "1917-01-11T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1880,
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"date_text": "1880\u201381",
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"updated_at": "2026-05-29 05:16:26.009000"
}
}