FRENCH SCULPTURE CENSUS / RÉPERTOIRE DE SCULPTURE FRANÇAISE
RODIN, Auguste Paris 1840 - Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine 1917
Le Penseur, grand modèle The Thinker, Large Version modeled 1882-1884, enlarged 1903, cast 1904 plaster
statue
1 3 70 ?2 x 55 ?4 in.
Acc. No.: 04.36 Credit Line: Gift of André Saglio, Commissioner of Fine Arts of the French Government at the St. Louis Exposition, 1904
Photo credit: www.metmuseum.org, August 18, 2011 © Artist :
New York, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art www.metmuseum.org
Provenance
1904, Gift of André Saglio, Commissioner of Fine Arts of the French Government at the St. Louis Exposition 1944 September-1952 May, lent to the Columbus, OH, Gallery of Fine Arts where it was given a dark green patination
Bibliography
1904 Vitry Paul Vitry, "La sculpture aux Salons", Art et décoration, vol. XVI, 1904, p. 22, 23 (about the enlarged version exhibited at the Salon of the SNBA that year)
1908, 1910, 1913 MMA Casts
Catalogue of the collection of casts, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1908; second edition, 1910; second issue of second edition, 1913, no. 2607
1912 Breck
Joseph Breck, "The collection of sculptures by Auguste Rodin in the Metropolitan Museum", The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, vol. VII, 1912 (May supplement), p. 11, 20
1937 Cladel
Judith Cladel, Rodin, New York, 1937, p. 196, 197 (about the Panthéon/Musée Rodin cast)
1963 Elsen
Albert Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 35, 52, 54
2007 Le Normand-Romain (français)
Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, avec la collaboration d'Hélène Marraud et Diane Tytgat, introductions par Dr. Ruth Butler et Mr. Régis Cusinberche, Rodin et le bronze. Catalogue des œuvres conservées au musée Rodin, 2 volumes, Paris, Musée Rodin / Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2007, vol. 2, pp.584-595, Le Penseur, grand modèle, 1881-1882, cet exemplaire est cité p.587 : "New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, don de Rodin, 1905 (exp. 1904, Saint- Louis, n°1120)"
2007 Le Normand-Romain (English)
Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, with the collaboration of Hélène Marraud and Diane Tytgat, introductions by Dr. Ruth Butler and Mr. Régis Cusinberche, The Bronzes of Rodin. Catalogue of works in the Musée Rodin, 2 volumes, English version, Paris, Musée Rodin / Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2007, vol. 2, pp.584-595, The Thinker, Large Version, 1881-1882, this copy is mentioned p.587: "New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, gift of Rodin, 1905 (exh. 1904, St. Louis, no.1120)"
2017 Blanchetière François Blanchetière, L’Enfer selon Rodin, éditions du musée Rodin, édition Norma, Paris, 2017, fig. 1, p. 198
Exhibitions
1904 Saint-Louis
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, Official Catalogue of Exhibitors: Department B. Art, revised edition, St. Louis, 1904, p. 163 (sic), no. 1120 (originally a bronze was intended to be exhibited, because the first edition of the exposition catalogue differs from the second in describing the entry as "The Thinker. Bronze cire perdue by A.A. Hébrard, Founder", Official Catalogue of Exhibitors: Department B. Art, first ed., St. Louis, 1904, p. 136 (sic), no. 1120)
Related works
Museum's file: Smaller version (H. 27 5/8), first modelled probably c. 1880, see in the same museum 11.173.9. Subject mechanically enlarged in 1904, exhibited in the Paris Salon de la Société nationale des Beaux-arts of the same year. Other bronze copies: - first enlarged bronze cast in 1906, purchased by public subscription, placed in front of the Panthéon in Paris, removed in 1922 and placed in the garden of the Musée Rodin in Paris, - cast in 1906 for Carl Jacobsen and given to the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen - cast made before 1917 when it was placed at Rodin's grave in Meudon, - cast by Rudier (H. 72) in the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia - cast (H. 78) in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco - cast marked Alexis Rudier/ Fondeur Paris at the Cleveland Museum of Art, purchased from Rodin in 1916 - cast owned by Columbia University, New York.