Areas where patina had been polished bare by the touch of passing visitors were recoloured using mismatched paint, and over the decades the work accumulated several coatings, including what appears to be black paint, varnish, boot polish and more modern ‘museum wax’. This reaction produces a surface which is a thin inorganic chemical corrosion product and generates the rich depth of colour unique to quality bronze sculpture. Some suggestion of his vision can be found in the original plaster exhibited at the Musée d’Orsay and in the doors that were made posthumously. 1        Information about Ionides is from Andrew Watson, ‘Constantine Alexander Ionides: Rodin’s first important English patron’, Sculpture Journal, vol. 54 (private collection). $27.95 $ 27. The transformation was faster than any I have ever observed. Bingen, meanwhile, cast the Bust of Antonin Proust in August 1884,18Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge MA. Many marble and bronze editions in several sizes were executed in Rodin’s lifetime and after, but the most famous version is the 6-foot (1.8-metre) bronze statue (commonly called a monumental) cast in 1904 that sits in the gardens of the Rodin Museum in Paris. A digital three-dimensional copy now exists that allows the digital overlay of several versions of The thinker (fig. Visitors queue in international art galleries to access great art treasures. These thousands of white paint spots were very well adhered to the surface of the sculpture as a result of a chemical reaction on the metal caused by the slightly acidic paint binder. Following many, many hours of recolouring areas of lost patina I was ready to commence the final step of re-waxing the sculpture and reinstating the luminous surface bronze it is famous for. 1        Information about Ionides is from Andrew Watson, ‘Constantine Alexander Ionides: Rodin’s first important English patron’, 3        Ionides, letter to Rodin, 22 June 1881. Rodin made a number of other marble and bronze editions, but his most famous version is the 6-foot bronze statue siting in the gardens of the Rodin Museum in Paris. However, given that Bingen systematically marked his casts and Eugène Gonon did not, it seems likely to be the work of Gonon. Instead, this detail seems likely to mark either a hesitation on the part of the artist or a demand made by the collector – should there not be some marker, some attribute, by which the spectator might identify this naked man? Some objects Conservators encounter present more than technical preservation problems. 29–30. 7). Label Auguste Rodin originally conceived a smaller version of this sculpture to sit atop his monumental bronze portal entitled The Gates of Hell (1880-1917). See Albert E. Elsen, The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin, Stanford University Press, Stanford, 1985; Le Normand-Romain, The Bronzes by Rodin. 21      Gauchez, letter to Rodin, 11 May 1888, archives of the Musée Rodin, Paris. Undertaking the conservation of a well-known work of art may potentially change public perceptions of it permanently. 3), we should not imagine that Rodin originally placed it on the head of the figure destined for The Gates of Hell, and subsequently removed it. A wide variety of the thinker sculpture options are available to you, such as home decoration, art & collectible, and souvenir. Although fascinated by The kiss, Ionides did not acquire it and no casts were made until several years later.8Contrary to the hypothesis of Watson, pp. It is easy to imagine the hasty decision to apply a dark painted coating to the sculpture, perhaps to improve its appearance at point of sale to the NGV, to give it a dark appearance consistent with later Rodin work. It is the earliest cast of the statue by some ten years11Two casts were made in 1896 by Auguste Griffoul; they are currently in the collections of the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire de Genève, Geneva, and the Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo. Often months of work could literally be wiped away in moments, returning to the damaged surface. Conservators do not seek to create an illusion of a new object based on the remnants of an original, we seek to preserve and present in a legible manner what has been passed down to us. Rodin later changed his mind as the work gradually took on a more universal sense, that of the poet in the etymological sense of ‘creator’ – that is, until it ultimately became The thinker, the seated man thinking in preparation for action. The chemical reaction caused by the thousands of white paint spots also removed a tiny spot of patina. The sculpture is nude, as Rodin wanted a heroic figure in the tradition of Michelangelo, to represent intellect as well as poetry. The Thinker sculpture by Auguste Rodin is the change that cemented the fact that the Mandela Effect is not a case of misremembering or confabulation, as I’ve seen it in THREE different poses so far! 54 (private collection). Auguste Rodin’s The thinker (Le Penseur), 1884 (fig. Sent with Australia Post Standard Parcel. Still and pensive, he observes the twisting figures of those suffering in the circles of Hell below. Henley, letter to Rodin, 24 April 1882, archives of the Musée Rodin, Paris. Sold by Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 19 March 2004, no. The test patches revealed tiny windows into the sculpture’s history. The two founders each entered a bid for the casting of The Gates of Hell in June and July 1884; a budget of 35,000 francs was allocated in August 1885 (answering to Bingen’s tender), payable in three annual instalments from 1886, but Rodin was unable to deliver the model and set the process rolling. It was through Dalou and Legros that Ionides became acquainted with Rodin, who had, like the two artists, been a pupil of the Petite École2This state institution for teaching draughtsmanship and other artistic disciplines was founded to train artist-craftsmen and prepare its best students for the competitive entrance exam of the École des Beaux-Arts. This detail from the Gates of Hell was first named The Thinker by foundry workers, who noted its similarity to Michelangelo's statue of Lorenzo de Medici called "Il Penseroso" (The Thinker). Meanwhile, the location of the original was largely forgotten by the world. The Thinker statue is the most famous work by French sculptor Auguste Rodin and was originally part of The Gates Of Hell. If a conservator has done their job well, most people will never notice he or she was there. 1). Detail and shadow used to highlight muscles and form – the product of very careful patination – came to life. Rodin showed the sculpture at the 1904 Salon, an annual exhibition of French art, where The Thinker’s larger-than-life size and isolation from The Gates yielded greater heed than his smaller counterpart. It was moved to the gardens of the Rodin Museum in 1922. Multiple versions: The statue of The Thinker can be found all around the world.Rodin created the first version of this statue in plaster in 1881. The thinker’s complex and articulate surface was unprecedented and revealed the great importance of this sculpture. Ionides, letter to Rodin, 22 June 1881. David Thurrowgood, Senior Conservator, Metals and Conservation Science, NGV (in 2013). While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The nude form is seated on a rock, his back hunched forward, brows furrowed, chin resting on his relaxed hand, and mouth thrust into his knuckles. The NGV’s The thinker is also at the forefront of advances in understanding the composition of French bronze sculpture. At the NGV, one of these treasures has sat hidden in plain sight. Thankfully the sculpture’s waxed surface largely obscured my restoration work and revealed a surprising range of tones and forms (fig.  11). 18      Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge MA. You can also choose from resin, metal the thinker sculpture, as well as from angel, animal, and mascot the thinker sculpture, and whether the thinker sculpture is folk art, antique imitation, or artificial. This is the very first known mention of the ‘thinker’ title, which did not become official before the end of the 1880s. then, in 1885, the Ixelles Idyll group.17Collection of Musée Rodin, Paris. On the matter of technique, a recent examination of the interior of the NGV’s The thinker has shown that it was cast by the lost-wax process. Conservators work in a way which is as reversible as possible. Thankfully, our The thinker escaped earlier attempts to ‘restore’ it. 8        Contrary to the hypothesis of  Watson, pp. The Thinker sculpture was part of a commission by the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris to sculpt a monumental door based on The Divine Comedy of Dante. The overwhelming advantage of this technology is that dry ice freezes and fractures the coating from the surface, leaving no chemical residue, not changing the underlying bronze or patina and, as an added advantage, not poisoning the conservator. 10      See Watson, p. 32; Ionides had already bought a bronze of Rodin’s portrait of Legros, a mask of the Man with a broken nose, before 1881 (Rhode Island School of Design), and two examples of Kissing babes; see note 3. Alicja Zelazko is the Assistant Editor, Arts and Humanities, covering topics in the visual arts, architecture, music, and performance. Such is its power that today we are likely to encounter it in advertising, often in some arbitrary and disconnected form. 17      Collection of Musée Rodin, Paris. This black and ill-defined sculpture was not much to look at during recent decades. 23–38. It was succeeded by the Georges Rudier foundry, which sometimes used the lost-wax method. The third bronze, a mask of Man with a broken nose, was not acquired. Rodin, letters to the Ministre de l’Instruction publique et des Beaux-Arts, 25 June & 11 Dec. 1884, Archives nationales, Paris, F21/2109. Meeting the material needs of a work that has evoked this level of public engagement is a rare task, even for experienced conservators. On the hands and knee I integrated what was left of the patina to give a coherent surface, but one that does not hide the damage caused in these areas to anyone studying the work closely. The sculpture was very probably. Bronze, on concrete and limestone bases. At that time, Rodin had made sufficient progress on The Gates of Hell to consider making a cast of the whole. One of the great advantages of the NGV collection is that it has escaped the well-meaning restorations and interventions experienced by many European collections, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s. The Gates of Hell, an unfinished project, resulted in two of his most famous pieces: The Thinker and The Kiss. If a treatment is unsuccessful, however, it is not easily forgotten. The colour of this type of sculpture is the result of a chemical reaction between heated bronze and a highly reactive chemical. One sculpture only, please advise which one The Thinker, … Some scholars suggest that the Poet was originally meant to represent Dante, but the muscular and bulky form contrasts with typical sculptures that depict the poet as slender and lithe. 6, 1883. This confirmed a history of coatings, the most tenacious of which was a black pigmented layer directly on the surface of the patina, which was resistant to all but the most aggressive (and toxic) solvents. There is no founder’s mark on the Ionides cast of The thinker, but it seems likely to have been made by one of these two founders. The correspondence between Henley and Rodin is particularly abund-ant and informative since the critic was anxious to keep up-to-date with Rodin’s work and above all with the progress of the The Gates of Hell (fig. Creative Abstract Modern Sculpture The Thinker Statue, Hand & Face Statues and Sculptures for Home Decor (Silence Silver) 4.3 out of 5 stars 131 2 offers from $60.92 Clearly an early cast of excellent quality, it presented certain unexpected details, most obviously a Florentine cap worn by the man found in no other known example of the work. Shop Rodin statues, sculptures and replicas if the Rodin Sculptural collection of Statuary for sale at Statue.com. Like many classic works, it is not the result of positioning at that time, but gradually evolved into a historical and cultural symbol in the washing of years and ideas. Often it has been decades or longer since a work of art looked the way its maker intended. For many weeks I individually colour matched pigments to fill the missing spots of patina (fig. A sculpture’s patina is only original once, and continues to improve as a well-cared-for sculpture ages. I took a microscopic sample from the work to the Australian Synchrotron, the nation’s most sophisticated scientific instrument, for study. See Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, ‘The greatest of living sculptors’, in Catherine Lampert et. It demands intense concentration and delicate hand–eye coordination, involving subtle changes in technique in response to the surface of a particular work that are not fully apparent to onlookers.