The Thinker - Additional Casts

Additional Casts

More than 20 monumental-sized bronze casts of the sculpture are in museums around the world. In addition, there are sculptures of different study size scales and plaster models in both monumental and study sizes. Some newer castings have been produced posthumously and are not considered part of the original production.

Rodin made the first small plaster version around 1880. The first large-scale bronze cast was finished in 1902, but not presented to the public until 1904. It became the property of the city of Paris — thanks to a subscription organized by Rodin admirers — and was put in front of the Panthéon in 1906. In 1922, it was moved to the Hôtel Biron, which was transformed into a Rodin Museum. In the spring of 2011, the cast of "The Thinker" was moved temporarily to the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago in Hyde Park. This cast was a bequest from Harold H. Swift. The cast can be found at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University.

The first cast sculpture can be found in front of Grawemeyer Hall on the University of Louisville Belknap Campus in Louisville, Kentucky. Made in Paris, it was first displayed at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 and was then given to the city. This sculpture was the only cast created by the lost-wax casting method.