The Thinker was designed for the tympanum, or region imediately over the two doors, of Rodin's Gates of Hell. Initially Rodin associated The Thinker with Dante but there is evidence that he also thought of the figure in broader, more universal terms. Rodin first exhibited The Thinker separately in Copenhagen in 1888, where he called it The Poet. In Paris only a year later, Rodin called it The Thinker; The Poet, Fragment of a Door. The athletic figure, inspired by Michelangelo, depicts a man in sober meditation; his muscles strain with effort, evidence of a powerful internal struggle. This version is half of the original height of 28 inches. The larger version of The Thinker on exhibit at the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco (78 inches) represents an enlargement made during Rodin's lifetime in 1903. During his lifetime, Rodin frequently had assistants enlarge or reduce his pieces depending on the specific requirements of patrons or of a particular design.