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Thought

Modeled 1895; carved 1900-1901
Artist/maker: Auguste Rodin, French, 1840 - 1917. Carved by Camille Raynaud, French, 1868 - after 1931
Rodin used the sculptor Camille Claudel, his student and lover, as the model for this personification of thought....

Object Details
Commissioned from the artist by Alexander Harrison (1853–1930) for the W. P. Wilstach Collection, Philadelphia, August 1900; instead sold to John G. Johnson (1841–1917), Philadelphia, April 1901 [1]; bequest to the City of Philadelphia, 1917.1. Alexander Harrison initially negotiated the purchase of this marble sculpture in August 1900 for the “Memorial Hall Museum,” his name for the W. P. Wilstach Collection. Since Wilstach funds permitted only the acquisition of paintings, Johnson bought the work for his own collection. Johnson wrote to Rodin to negotiate the purchase on April 8, 1901, and the marble arrived in Philadelphia in July of that year, according to correspondence in the Musée Rodin Archives, Paris.

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