Statue "Thinker" Rodin: photo and description

It is often said that Impressionism breathed new life into painting, but also into sculpture. Auguste Rodin (years of life - 1840-1917) - the first since Bernini's time a brilliant sculptor who transformed this art form when Monet and Manet transformed painting. In his work, however, he did not follow in the footsteps of these artists. And of course, it was impossible without the help of colors, in the voluminous image to achieve the same impression that the "River" and "Flutist" produce. The photo of Auguste Rodin is presented below.

"Thinker" in the history of sculpture

Not one of the previously created plastic forms is similar to the statue of "The Thinker" Rodin. In the history of sculpture, a person who is in the process of thought is often depicted. For example, in the Renaissance almost every sculptural group bears a seal of spiritual torment, and consequently, of the character's thoughts in a moment, stopped by the author. However, something completely new is the figure "The Thinker". Rodin was able to convey only with the help of a pose the state of his hero.

Mysteriousness of the image of the "Thinker"

It is curious that Jean Bo, a Frenchman, a muscular boxer who served mainly in Paris served as a model for him (as for many other works of this sculptor). It was he who also posed for Rodin.

"Thinker" is a very ambiguous image. For many years, disputes about what made Rodin's hero so deeply reflect. His mysterious "Thinker" is similar to the one created by Da Vinci Mona Lisa. As her smile conceals something intimate in herself, so the pose of the figure does not allow us to understand what this person thinks. Rodin is not at all straightforward about this. "Thinker", a photo of which is presented below, is a work not only depicting reflection, but for more than a century has made people think about the meaning of this work by many connoisseurs of art.

It is difficult to imagine today a more complete embodiment of painful and inquisitive human thought than the image of interest to us. We can give the following description.

Rodin, "The Thinker": a description of the sculpture

With her hand on her chin, she sits naked titanium. Unhappy with his meditation, they made his face sad, and his powerful back was bent. From under the hanging of a person's hair, deep shadows fall. Sharp wrinkles lay on the bridge of the nose, and the mouth, slightly shifted by the movement of the hand, gives the face asymmetry. If you look at the statue on the right, it seems that, thinking, the man bit his hand with his teeth. However, not only the head - the entire body of this titan seems to think, trying to find a way out of the tangle of contradictions. Movement of the leg and bent hands on the right, a sharp line of the nose and forehead, a slope of the back make this figure extremely tense, springy. The impression on the other hand is changing. A left hand fell down on his knee. His fingers do not grab him, they just hang in the air.

Maximum attention was paid to the hands of the vast majority of various plastic masters. Hands and facial expressions are the fundamentals that conveyed the character of the characters depicted. Such was the tradition. If the forerunners of Auguste found their hands, as a rule, some occupation (they held something, squeezed or expressed movement, for example pointing to something), then Rodin does not follow the experience of other sculptors. And it is precisely this inaction that lies behind the power of thought transmitted by the author.

What does the "Thinker" think, in the opinion of Andrei Suzdaltsev

What does the Thinker think? Rodin, as Andrey Suzdaltsev argues in the article published in the magazine "Decision", wanted to convey the following. Bent, like a spring, a naked man is organized plastically around the head - the main center. All the most important things that happen to him happen in her. There is a sensation of the flow of thought, the tension transmitted to the brain by the entire spring of this bent body. Here we are dealing with a system that is self-contained. This thinking person does not need anyone. He is self-sufficient in principle. The thinker is cocked like a trigger, wound up like a clock. It's a hero of thought, a lone hero. He hardly thinks about how to help the laundress from Montmartre or the beggar from the streets of Paris. The thinker reflects on the destinies of the world. He thinks about himself, about eternity, about life and death.

Some can agree with Andrey Suzdaltsev, others will put forward their own versions, in which the answers will differ fundamentally from the above opinion. For more than a hundred years, Rodin's creation has not left humanity indifferent. Below is another photo of this famous sculptor.

"Thinker" and embryo in the womb

Andrey Suzdaltsev noticed one interesting thing. The pose of a thinking person, despite his greatness, the heroism of a mental act, the massiveness of muscles, an indistinct hint, treacherously, subtly shifts and drifts toward the embryo pose in the womb. As a great artist and thinker, Rodin could not help but talk about the path of cognition, the center and means of which is the intellect. Before us appears not a hero of the spirit, but only an emerging little man on the road to true becoming. It's a baby, a fetus. Here it can be noted that the very idea of sculpture says that in the stage of the embryo is the thought of this figure.

Remarks S.A. Musky

About the work of interest to us a lot is said also in the scientific work entitled "100 Great Sculptors" (author - SA Mussky). The art critic writes that Roden did not try to catch the statue in a deceptive optical effect. He was only trying to convey the process of "growth" - a miracle of animation under the hands of the artist of dead material. Insisting on incompleteness, Rodin's beloved, he saved his sculpture from the mechanical copying of reality.

This image was created for the "Gateway of Hell". Therefore, let us tell a little about this work of Auguste Rodin.

The history of the "Gateway of Hell"

In France in 1880 it was decided to build a museum of decorative arts. Auguste Rodin was commissioned with monumental bronze doors for him. The theme depicted on the doors of the bas-relief was to be "Divine Comedy", created by Dante.

Rodin, creating the "Gates of Hell", cast in bronze only in 1925, not only reinterpreted the images of Dante in his work, but also modified the biblical, mythological subjects, as well as the "Last Judgment" of Michelangelo and the works of Charles Baudelaire, his favorite poet. This sculptor made in 1888 in ink and pen illustrations for the collection, in which he passed with particular force the struggle between the spiritual and the sensual beginning. Stylistically, the figures depicted on the "Gates of Hell" are closer to Baudelaire, not to Dante. They floated out of the frame, bent, groaning with pain and passion, superimposed one on the other. In 1887, Auguste Rodin himself said that one should not look for a methodical or orderly plot, moral grounds or image coherence here. He followed the imagination, the feeling of composition and movement.

Composition "Gateway of Hell"

"The gates of hell" - this is perhaps the greatest work of this sculptor, already after the death of the creator embodied in the material. For the whole of 37 years Auguste Rodin worked on it. "Thinker," as we have already mentioned, is part of this composition.

Initially, many famous sculptures were created as part of this large-scale creation. 186 figures contain seven-meter "Gate". They were supposed to be framed initially by statues of Adam and Eve, the first sinners, but Rodin later refused this idea. The figure of Adam, however, became the basis of the composition that crowned the portal of the Three Shadows. Beneath it is a bottomless abyss that absorbs the souls of many sinners.

Many of the figures made for the Gates of Hell became later independent works. The statue of Rodin's "Thinker" was one of them. In this sculpture depicts the image of Dante, although there is no external similarity between the statue and the creator of the "Divine Comedy".

Other opinions about who such a "Thinker"

Who is the "Thinker" after all? In part this is Prometheus. But in it you can also find a captive of the carnal passions that afflict this person. Roden abstained from calling someone's name a sculpture. Anyway, the statue could not match the similarity, which was planned in advance. The form and content in this innovative image are merged together. Like the naked figures of Michelangelo, "The Thinker" is far from being a fake under the undressed sitters. Like these figures, he represents the action recorded at rest.

However, Auguste Rodin was by nature a stucco and he worked, unlike Michelangelo, not with a stone. For casting in bronze, each of his best works was created. All their power can be appreciated by considering plaster casts made from clay originals of Rodin.

In the town of Meudon, located in France, is the tomb of Auguste Rodin. The sculptor of interest to us is buried in the garden, and above his ashes the sad and solemn memory of the figure that perpetuated his memory rises. This, of course, is one of the most famous works that Rodin created - The Thinker. A photo of the grave with this statue is presented below.

Features of the creative process in Rodin

Rodin created all his works on the basis of careful study of nature. Fearful of premeditation, artificiality, falsity, he confined himself only to a verbal definition for the sitter's pose. This applies to the statue of "Thinker" Rodin. Jean Bo posed freely, naturally. Auguste, as was always the case in his work, did not specifically correct the position of the body. He liked to observe human figures in the natural movement, looking at the sitters who were in the workshop, but did not have the task to pose. Today it is difficult to imagine a more complete embodiment of painful and inquisitive human thought than the sculpture "The Thinker". This image is very popular. Often used as a caricature of Rodin's "Thinker." This indicates that this figure is so famous that it is recognized by all.