Campus Spotlight: “The Thinker”

By Sarah Weller By Sarah Weller

By Sarah Weller

Assistant Focus Editor

So, here we are at the end of the stretch, merely a week away from finals. Many of you will be needing a little boost, perhaps for some inspiration to get prepared for finals week. Why not look to “The Thinker,” a statue residing outside of Grawemeyer Hall, which represents much of the inspiration you are searching for?

“The Thinker,” the most famous sculpture by the great Auguste Rodin, made around 1880, was rumored to have originally been a part of Rodin’s “Gates of Hell,” a work motivated by Dante’s Inferno. However, when looking at “The Thinker,” it is hard to find anything hellish about it. The sculpture has been recreated several times in different sizes in museums all over the world, including the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia. The one here at the University of Louisville, originally created in Paris, was unveiled in 1949. The figure of the seated meditative male with his chin resting on a relaxed hand and every inch of his entire body in the act of thinking is one known to many students around campus.

“I always like walking past “The Thinker” because it symbolizes what we are doing here. We are all thinking, learning, and experiencing every day of our lives and “The Thinker” is the perfect representation of that.” said one U of L student.

According to the U of L website, U of L’s bronze version of the statue was first displayed at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904 and was given to the City of Louisville in 1949 as a gift. What started out as a simple sculpture has become a statue holding some representation of character that the university is proud to have on Belknap Campus.

Whether we realize it or not, we are all here for some purpose; whether it be just to get a degree, or to simply find ourselves in this crazy world we are living in, we are all here today searching for something. At times, especially around the end of a semester and close to finals, we can all get a little stressed out and need some reassurance that the reason we came here for still exists. So, if one day you are wandering around campus looking for a reminder of why you’re at college, try walking over to Grawemeyer Hall and looking up at “The Thinker.”