The Thinker

sculpture · art · philosophy

A symbol of thinking. The Thinker shows a man sitting on a rock with his chin resting on his hand, looking deeply concentrated. This pose has become so famous that people everywhere use it to mean thinking hard or being thoughtful.

Bronze and massive. The sculpture is made of bronze and shows a powerful male figure bigger than life-size. Rodin created it in the late 1800s, and it remains one of the most recognized artworks in the whole world.

Part of a larger work. The Thinker was originally designed as one piece of Rodin's huge art project called The Gates of Hell, which told stories from an old poem. The Thinker figure represented Dante Alighieri, the poet who wrote those stories.

Copied everywhere. Because the pose is so recognizable, artists, cartoonists, and advertisers have copied and parodied The Thinker thousands of times. You've probably seen funny versions of it in movies, comics, or advertisements without even realizing it.