Reflection is a particular and a useful state of mind but we tend to overlook it through its familiarity. We can treat it in a cavalier way, not paying much attention to someone given over to reflection. We might suppose that they are staring ‘vacantly’ into space.
We can recognise someone in a pose of reflection though Reflection to date is not characterised by a genre in representational form – though many people recognise Rodin’s ‘Thinker’. It was perhaps the first time that attention was directed towards the posture.
Below is a montage of figurines showing subjects in a ruminative state of Reflection.
‘La Penseuse’ (French female Thinker)
Modern art ‘Thinker’ by Tolleck Winner
A caricature of Einstein who wrote ‘I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking’
