Fun Art Fact: Did you know that the “Thinker” by Auguste Rodin is not as big as you think it is? Did you know it is not where you thought it was either? That’s right. Most people think the “Thinker” is about 6 feet tall and located in Paris. While there is a bronze casting of the “Thinker” in Paris, the original scale (1880) was actually only about 72cm tall. It was created to sit atop his famous “Gates of Hell” monument in the early 1880’s. Rodin had the sculpture expanded 22 years later by a professional reducteur named Henri Lebosse (1902). You see, Rodin created the sculpture as an allegorical portrait of poet Dante Alighieri for inclusion on his seminal “Gate of Hell”. He then had it expanded for the 1904 Louisville Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky… where it remains today. “Kentucky, you say?” Yup. Kentucky. All told, about 11 of the large “Great Thinker” were cast before the artist died in 1917. The Musee Rodin still produces them to fund their activities at a price of just under $2M USD. In the mid-1980’s a Japanese investor offered $100M for one of the lifetime casts… No one sold.