Widely considered as the father of modern sculpture, Auguste Rodin was a towering figure in the field of sculpture. Born as François Auguste René in Paris on 12 November 1840, he was schooled traditionally, but was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art. He departed from traditional themes of mythology and modeled the human body with realism.

‘The Thinker’ is perhaps universally known as a master creation of the renowned French sculptor Auguste Rodin. However, it is only a single part of the master artist’s large compositional piece created as an entranceway for the proposed Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The huge piece, known as the ‘Gates of Hell’ was based on the 16th century long, narrative and epic poem, the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. The Thinker was originally intended to depict Dante and was projected to sit at the top of the doorway.

‘The Thinker’ was originally known as ‘The Poet’, as it was supposed to represent the poet Dante, the composer of the epic poem on which the project was based. However, as this piece was exhibited individually in 1888, it became famous as an independent work and when enlarged in 1904, its colossal version proved even more popular. Thus, it began to gain priority over the original composition of the ‘Gates of Hell’ and became famous worldwide as the Thinker. Today it has become a commonly accepted symbol of philosophy and learning. Like many other famous creations by the Renaissance masters, the Thinker was also created in nude.

The Thinker, the crowning element of The Gates of Hell is the image of a mentally tortured body and almost a damned soul, but a free thinking man, determined to transcend his suffering through his poetry. The pose of the figure seems to have much similarity to the marble sculpture of Ugolino made by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux in Paris and the marble sculpture depicting Lorenzo de’ Medici, carved by Michelangelo on the tomb of Lorenzo.

During the lifetime of Rodin and even after his death, lots of marble, as well as bronze editions of the Thinker in several sizes were executed by different sculptors. The most famous among them, the 6 feel (1.8 m) tall bronze statue that was cast in 1904, was installed in the gardens of the Rodin Museum in Paris. Another copy of the Thinker was chosen by Rodin to mark his grave in the cemetery at Meudon in Paris.

Unfortunately the Paris Museum, for which the original composition named the Gates of Hell was created, was never built and so there is little critical reception of the piece in its original format.