Rodin's 'The Thinker' at Legion of Honor: A Monumental Bronze with a Rich History

A 6-foot-tall bronze cast of Auguste Rodin's 'The Thinker' greets visitors at the Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco's Court of Honor. Created around 1880-1881, the sculpture originally depicted the Italian poet Dante and was intended for the tympanum of 'The Gates of Hell,' a project for a never-completed Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. By 1889, it was exhibited at the Exposition Monet-Rodin at Galerie Georges Petit. There are approximately 28 to 30 official bronze casts, many produced by the Alexis Rudier Foundry under Rodin's supervision. The Legion of Honor's cast was acquired in 1924 by San Francisco socialite Alma de Bretteville Spreckels with the help of dancer Loie Fuller. Spreckels later donated over 70 Rodin sculptures to the museum, making its collection one of the most important outside France. Other casts reside at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, Kunsthalle Bielefeld in Germany, Columbia University in New York, and the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.