Think you know about UofL's Thinker? Think again.
He’s the real deal.
The Thinker statue that sits on the steps of Grawemeyer Hall is the first full-size bronze cast of the work by French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Rodin personally supervised the casting on Dec. 25, 1903.
Our Thinker has been around.
He went to the 1904 World's Fair (briefly, until Rodin replaced him with a plaster version), was owned privately in Baltimore and later was displayed in a gallery there. When Baltimore purchased another Thinker, it sold the 1903 version to the estate of lawyer and art lover Arthur Hopkins, which bought it for the city of Louisville. The city decided to put The Thinker at UofL.
He has sat in front of Grawemeyer Hall since 1949.
Yes, he’s green.
Chemical reactions of acids in rainwater with copper compounds in the bronze have given our Thinker a green patina. The university is in early stages of having him restored to his original state.
Rodin’s Thinker goes way back.
The origins of The Thinker date to 1880 when the French government commissioned Rodin to create a gate for a planned museum in Paris.
He found inspiration in Michelangelo's depiction of Hell in the Sistine Chapel paintings and in Dante's epic poem "The Inferno" and created a prototype for a massive gate he called The Gates of Hell. A man he called The Poet sat atop the gate, contemplating the condemned souls below.
Rodin refined the design over the next 20 years, even though Paris never built the museum.
And he’s recognized everywhere.
Many art historians consider The Thinker to be the most famous sculpture in the world. Countless media campaigns and programs have used it. The statue even played an important role in the early days of television when it was incorporated in a popular TV show called "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis."