The Thinker (French Le Penseur) is one of the main works of the sculptor Auguste Rodin and was created between 1880 and 1882.

The original is in the possession of the Musée Rodin in Paris, a copy stands at the grave of the artist in Meudon. The sculpture has a height of 72 cm. The work was enlarged in 1902 to a height of 181 cm. This large version is Rodin’s first work in public space.

The model for this sculpture was the French prize boxer and wrestler Jean Baud, who, however, was not an intellectual or a thinker.

The sculpture is to represent Dante Alighieri, the genius creator of the Divine Comedy. By Rodin’s long occupation with his work and so with the limits of heaven and hell, the sculptor had fallen into a serious existential crisis. The Gates of Hell, a portal designed by Dante’s Inferno for the Musée des Arts Décoratifs – a government order which was abandoned in 1880 – occupied him to the end of his life. He created for it 186 figures, some of which were also free. The Thinker, for example, who, in strong tension, muscled and internalized, ponders the actions and destinies of people.

One of the castles of the Hell Gate stands in front of the Kunsthaus in Zurich.