Rodin’s iconic sculpture on loan to Winnipeg Art Gallery

Officials at the Winnipeg Art Gallery can hardly contain their excitement over an early holiday present the gallery unveiled in mid-December.

The gallery’s exhibit of modern sculpture has been augmented by one of the most recognized sculptures in the history of art.

French sculptor Auguste Rodin’s monumental sculpture The Thinker arrived at the WAG, courtesy of an anonymous private collector who offered to lend the sculpture to the WAG after learning of the Gallery’s Rodin exhibition.

“Winnipegers should be prepared to be wowed,” said Rachel Baerg, WAG Head of Education. “It’s an incredible piece, I’ve seen it in pictures before, I teach art history with it, but to actually see, to come face to face with The Thinker is amazing. And he actually hovers over you in that space. ”

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The six foot bronze statue depicts a male nude figure seated on a rock with his chin resting on one hand, Baerg said. The sculpture is one of the bronze casts produced posthumously from the original plaster molds with the permission of the Rodin Museum in Paris, she said.

Rodin, considered to be father of modern sculpture, originally conceived the statue in a smaller form, about three feet high, as part of his monumental 1880 sculptural commission called The Gates of Hell for the Museum of Decorative Art in Paris, Baerg said.

The Thinker was supposed to sit on top of the gates but they were never conceived and Rodin used elements of his creation to expand on them throughout his life, Baerg said.

In 1902, he produced the six-foot version making it into an independent work.

The Thinker, which stands at 10 feet with the pedestal, greets the visitors at the WAG’s Skylight Gallery.

The massive bronze statue beautifully complements the WAG’s Starting with Rodin exhibition in the Mezzanine Gallery, which brings together nearly 30 sculptures from the gallery’s permanent collection, Baerg said.

The Thinker will be at the WAG until spring.