The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) received an early Christmas present this year in the form of one of the most recognizable sculptures in the world.

WAG Director and CEO Stephen Borys was joined by other WAG employees to unveil one of approximately 30 original bronze casts of Auguste Rodin’s massive sculpture, The Thinker at the WAG’s Skylight Gallery this afternoon, Dec. 16, 2016.

“To get a chance to bring in this monumental piece of artwork, even before the holidays, is really exciting,” said Borys. “We’re thrilled and it tells me the WAG is a place people are aware of and they know we’re doing good things.”

A private collector who had the bronze sculpture heard about the WAG’s new exhibit, Starting with Rodin and offered to lend his cast of The Thinker to compliment the exhibit, according to Borys.

Borys says The Thinker is one of the most recognizable pieces of artwork in the world and says people can find it online or in books. However, he believes people should experience it in person.

“We live in a society saturated with images,” said Borys. “Most of them are on your computer screen and sometimes we lose touch of what it’s like to stand in front of a work that’s created by someone.”

“You can look at Rodin’s thinker on a computer or in a book but you won’t get to sense the magnitude and the colossal feel until you’re standing in front of it,” he continued. “Art still needs to be understood in the flesh.”

The bronze cast stands at around 10 feet tall when on its pedestal and weighs approximately 900 lbs. It was originally named The Poet, and was part of Rodin’s monumental sculptural commission, The Gates of Hell. According to a WAG release, Rodin produced a version double the size of the original and made it into an independent work years later.

Borys says scholars have debated the identity or source of the figure, suggesting it might be Dante, the biblical Adam or the artist himself.

There isn’t a set timeline on how long The Thinker will be at the WAG, but Borys says it will be in the Skylight Gallery until early-spring.