Great Art Explained

Season 1, Episode 11: The Thinker by Rodin

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The Thinker, captured in a moment of concentrated introspection has come to represent a multitude of ideas about the nature of man and his place in the world. For some it is a symbol of knowledge, others philosophy, even existence itself. As the critic Gabriel Mourey said: “It is simply a man for all time”. Yet, Rodin had no intention of producing such a complex universal symbol when he first conceived the idea. And The Thinker itself might never have existed, if Rodin had been accepted by the establishment in the first place.