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www.clemusart.com/
www.clevelandart.org
E-mail: info@cma-oh.org
The Thinker, bronze, detail |
Cleveland Museum of Art
University Circle
11150 East Boulevard, in University Circle
Cleveland, Ohio 44106-1797 USA
Tel. 001 - 216 421 73 40 (administrative offices)
Toll Free: 888 - 269 78 29
The website shows a detail from The Thinker, positioned at the
Museum's south entrance. Further information on Rodin work can be
accessed through the Library
slide archive, which produces 78 results for Rodin - but shows only
three Rodin works from the Cleveland collection. This modest online
presentation stands in sharp contrast to the defiant foreword to the
1967 Museum publication by Athena Tacha Spear:
"Fifty years after Rodinīs death, it is disturbing
to realize that in spite of unnumerable publications on this great
sculptor, his work still suffers from adequate study and considerable
misunderstandings. Among the major museums that own large collections of
his sculpture, rare are the ones that have published worthwile
catalogues (..). Surprisingly enough, the three American Museums that
have the largest collections of Rodins, the Philadelphia Rodin Museum,
the California Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco, and the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, have not yet brought any
significant contribution to the study of the master. Cleveland owns
probably the fourth best public collection of Rodins in this country,
important not so much for the number of works as for the fact that it
contains mostly casts and marbles before Rodinīs death."
The book holds what it promises and does not only give a minute
description of the Cleveland collection, but also puts it in the context
of related Rodin works and provides a nearly complete list of similar
plasters, bronze casts and marbles in other collections worldwide.
Although the study only covers a limited number of works and other
institutions now have published detailed catalogs on their own
collections, the 1967 book and its 1972 supplement still offers an
unmatched overview regarding such widely spread works as The Age of
Bronze, Jean dīAire, The Thinker, The Fallen Caryatid, The Bust of
Victor Hugo or the numerous Studies for the Head and the Figure of
Balzac. In many cases, it helped me to fill in white spots in my own
research and countercheck other sources.
The CMAīs Website mentions following works as part of the permanent
collection. As a matter of fact, the Museum holds over 20 important
works.
The Thinker, bronze (pre-1917) H. 72"
(destroyed by a bomb attack)
Victor Hugo, portrait bust, bronze,
anon. loan
Titanīs Vase support, glazed
earthenware, ca. 1877
Athena Spear - Rodin sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland
Museum of Art, 1967.
Athena Spear - Supplement to Rodin sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of
Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, 1973.
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