TheThinker (Le Penseur) is rough around the edges. Head in hand. The starkly nude male figure sits in intense contemplation. His body twisted awkwardly to rest his right arm on his left knee. He is modeled in intensive detail, yet maintaining rough texture. Rodin pays homage to his primary sculptural influences; Michelangelo and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. The skull cap recalling the portraits of Dante, and the torso reminding us of the taut musculature of the damned Ugolino, from Carpeaux in 1863. The entire generation of the 1870's was influenced heavily by the works of Dante and Michelangelo, including the enormously popular Carpeaux, for they had set the bar with which all creativity could be measured.

The Thinker was first conceived ca. 1880-1881 as a portrait of the poet Dante for the central tympanum on The Gates of Hell (Le Porte l'Enfer). The concept evolved from signifying the genius of Dante, but representing all poets or creators. The Thinker was designed as an independent figure almost from the time the Gates were composed. Since the sculpture was intended to sit many feet above the viewer, it is thought that this was Dante surveying the scene below, or perhaps inventing it altogether. Rodin's Dante, is in a restless and awakened sleep. Deaf. Dumb. Blind. Oblivious to the din which encircles him. The over sized hands convey the power and potential anguish of the damned souls which surround them. The toes clutch at the ground, just as Ugo.