Rodin's Thinker

One of over two dozen bronze casts of Rodin's Thinker, this work in within the Hall Sculpture Garden was likely cast in 1949, forty-five years after the artist's work was first cast in bronze. That first cast was based on Rodin's 1880 work that was originally conceived as a portrait of the poet Dante. The first cast (1904) is on display at Musée Rodin, in Paris.Kansas City's version of Rodin's Thinker was made possible through the Board of Parks and Recreation Commissioners and a gift of Grant I. and Mathilde Rosenzweig.

The inclusion of this classic work by Rodin demonstrates the connection between his work and that of the sculpture garden's featured artist Henry More. From an early age, Moore was inspired by Rodin’s “complete understanding of the body’s internal structure” and became fascinated with the human figure. At the time of Rodin's death in 1917, Moore was a nineteen-year-old soldier serving in France in the midst of World War I. In a 1970 interview with the Hayward Gallery in London which featured the works of Rodin alongside those of Moore, the latter spoke extensively of how Rodin was the artist who best understood and exemplified Michaelangelo and is also most responsible for the increased interest and appreciation for sculpture during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

"I can see a big connection between Rodin and Michelangelo," Rodin explained in the 1970 interview. "He's the one artist since Michelangelo who has understood Michelangelo best." Moore continued by crediting Rodin for bringing the art of making sculptures "out of the doldrums." "I can remember as a young sculptor reading a review of a mixed exhibition when the writer said he didn't intend to talk about sculpture as it was a dead art, only something to bump into or to knock your head against. Now everything has changed... something remarkable has happened, and to a great extent it is Rodin who is responsible."

Gallery Label, The Thinker, 1880; probably cast ca. 1949 Bronze, Nelson-Atkins Museum. Accessed July 7th, 2022.

Henry Moore and Alan Browness, "Henry Moore talks about Rodin's irresistible influence." The Guardian. March 23rd, 2013. First published in Rodin: Sculpture and Drawings, The Hayward Gallery, London, 1970. Accessed September 1st, 2022. https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/mar/23/henry-moore-auguste-rodin-exhibition.