Great Art Explained — Season 1, Episode 11: The Thinker by Rodin
Documentary • 15 min • 5 seasons, 39 episodes
Episode synopsis
The Thinker, captured in a moment of concentrated introspection has come to represent a multitude of ideas about the nature of man and his place in the world. For some it is a symbol of knowledge, others philosophy, even existence itself. As the critic Gabriel Mourey said: “It is simply a man for all time”. Yet, Rodin had no intention of producing such a complex universal symbol when he first conceived the idea. And The Thinker itself might never have existed, if Rodin had been accepted by the establishment in the first place.
About Great Art Explained
Great Art Explained is a video series that focuses on one piece of art per episode, breaking it down, using clear and concise language free of 'art-speak'.
More episodes from Season 1
- E1Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci (short version)
- E2Picasso’s Guernica
- E3Michelangelo's David
- E4The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault
- E5Frida Kahlo's 'The Two Fridas"
- E6The Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck
- E7Artemisia Gentileschi
- E8Andy Warhol's Marilyn Diptych
- E9Monet's Water Lilies
- E10Mark Rothko's Seagram Murals