Description
Rodin created this famous work in 1881. That year, he received his first official commission in Paris: an impressive bronze gate for a planned Museum of Decorative Arts. This Porte de l'Enfer (Gate of Hell) was designed based on Dante's Divine Comedy. The bronze artwork was intended for the central pediment, while its underscored musculature and focused expression echoed Michelangelo's tomb figures in the Florentine Basilica of St. Lawrence. The artwork is also known as Le Poète (The Poet), as it was essentially intended to depict Dante meditating. The Thinker was Rodin's first public work. On April 21, 1906, it was erected in front of the Pantheon during a severe political and social crisis, making it a symbol of socialism. In 1922, the artwork, along with its pedestal, was moved to the garden of the Hôtel Biron, which is now the Rodin Museum. Another copy can be found in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen. Other copies can be found at Rodin's gravestone in Meudon and in front of the main entrance to the Detroit Institute of Arts.
