Celebrated as one of the most prolific sculptor's in history, Auguste Rodin's birthday is today, Nov. 12. In commemoration of what would be his 172 birthday, Google's daily doodle is of his famous sculptor "The Thinker."
The Huffington Post reported that Rodin once said of "The Thinker," "What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes."
Rodin was borin in Paris and started drawing and painting when he was 14-years-old. His career spanned throughout the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The Rodin Museum states about the icon that "he was deeply inspired by tradition yet rebelled against its idealized forms, introducing innovative practices that paved the way for modern sculpture. He believed that art should be true to nature, a philosophy that shaped his attitudes to models and materials."
One of his most famous projects, was "The Gates of Hell," and notably unfinished. In 1880, Rodin received a commission to make bronze doors for a new arts museum in Paris. The Rodin museum said that this work became "the defining project of Rodin's career and a key to understanding his artistic aims." Rodin worked on The Gates of Hell for a 37-year period as he continued to change and add more than 200 human figures that were on the doors.
In its final form, "The Gates of Hell" was made of 186 figures but many of his famous sculptors were originally started as figures for "The Gates of Hell" including "The Thinker."
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