If you visit Paris and haven't been to the Musée Rodin, I highly recommend it. Not only does it have lots of beautiful Rodin artwork, but the grounds themselves are beautiful too. It's a great place to admire some artwork and to relax while you're doing it.
Another nice thing is that they don't screw around with you. If you go to the Musée Rodin you want to see The Thinker. So they put it front and center instead of making you walk through some Ikea-inspired maze before you finally find it. I appreciate that. So without further ado, here is The Thinker. I'll have more Musée Rodin pictures in the coming months.
POSTSCRIPT: I've never believed that the thinker really looked like he was thinking, and seeing the sculpture in person confirmed this. He looks more like he's sad about something—which I suppose is a type of thinking if you want to stretch things. But he definitely doesn't look like he's contemplating the mysteries of astrophysics or pondering the meaning of life.
To me, he looks like he just realized that he tweeted something really stupid, and he's pondering his future.
You meanthere are tweets which are not stupid?
I bet he's thinking, "Damn, this rock is hard."
I don't think I've ever seen it from that perspective.
That's Kevin Drum's contrarian point of view.
😉
If I want to see The Thinker I go to The Legion of Honor museum in San Francisco. Lots of information about The Thinker at the museum’s web site:
https://legionofhonor.famsf.org/about/thinker
There are a number of other Rodin sculptures there as well. Definitely worth the trip.
From this angle, the "thinker" looks more than ever as if he's sitting on ... er, the "throne."
Apologies for injecting such crudeness into high art.
That's where I do all my thinkin'
He's been at that almost as long as it takes me.
Given that The Thinker was originally created as part of Auguste Rodin's The Gates of Hell, he's probably contemplating eternal damnation.
It's not Paris, but I'll put a plug in for Rodin Museum in Philly:
https://rodinmuseum.org/
Okay, where's Dobie Gillis?
Man, you're old.
Still out there to stream. I just now saw a pre-Opie Ronny Howard in season 1, "Dobie's Birthday Party".
Turns out there are a shitload of Thinkers in the world in a variety of sizes. Last summer, I saw a pint sized one in a museum in upstate New York. So you never see The Thinker. You only see A Thinker.
My daughters got a hold of my phone for pictures in Firenze, I have many pictures of David's cheeks. More than I need.
When I was in Florence, I took a picture of Michelangelo's David from a similar angle.
A professor discussed the sculptor Rodin with a student who was discussing the film Rodan, to their mutual confusion, in a scene in "The Müller-Fokker Effect" by John Sladek.
When we visited the museum in Paris, the high point was the gift shop. The lady working there exemplified a certain Parisian attitude "I don't approve of you and if you don't leave soon I will say something." I was sooo tempted.
I second that motion that if you are in Paris you should visit this place. The garden is fantastic.
I used to go to school about four blocks from that place, and as I remember it the museum was free. I heard that when Rodin turned the ground over he had made a deal that it would be free access forever.
Am I misrembering something? This was 1966-67, and as I remember it you could always go over there and have a sandwich, look at the sculptures, no cost.
I suspect that some reformers jumped in and got control, because last time I dropped by it was very expensive to get in, not worth it. I'm guessing that whatever Rodin made them promise there was just too much pognon to be made.