Google honours The Thinker sculptor with a doodle

Google’s doodle for the day commemorates the birth anniversary of the noted French sculptor, François-Auguste-René Rodin or Auguste Rodin, as he is popularly known. Born on this day, Rodin’s most noted work remains to be The Thinker, and Google’s doodle honours The Thinker with its doodle.

Although a no-frills one, the doodle is charming. The Thinker with the moon as its backdrop has replaced the second ‘o’ in Google, and the colour scheme representing a moon-lit night makes the doodle look simple yet endearing. While Rodin never found himself to be a part of Paris’ foremost school of art, he is generally considered the most prominent face in modern sculpture. Rodin was adept at sculpting complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surfaces in clay. Some of his most notable works were subject to criticism during his lifetime. Rodin’s works were in contrast to the predominant figure sculpture tradition, wherein it was common to have decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic sculptures. 

Doodle commemorates Rodin’s 172nd birth anniversary

Rodin’s works were a far cry from the traditional themes of his time. His works commemorated individuality and physicality. Despite criticism, Rodin never changed his style. However, later his works got him favours from the government and the artistic community both. His fame only grew and by 1900, he had become world renowned. Following an illness, Rodin breathed his last at the age of 77 on the outskirts of Paris.  

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For its recent, Halloween-theme doodle, Google went old-school with an interactive haunted house doodle for its virtual visitors. The haunted house was complete with a crow perched on its roof, a wilted tree, and jack-o’-lanterns at the doorstep. A skeleton entices you into knocking on the door in front of you. The door opens and a white ghost pops up. You click on the ghost and it disappears. Move around a bit, click on the other two doors and spooky characters pop up from behind them. Almost all the key elements in the doodle are interactive, so there is never a dull moment. Once you have unearthed what is behind each of the closed doors, do not miss the alley cat hidden in the bin. Click on it, and it exits the scene, but not before giving out a spooky meow. You are then taken to Google’s search page, which displays results for the word ‘Halloween’. 

Speaking of interactive doodles, one cannot leave out the one Google displayed on the 78th birth anniversary of the inventor of the Moog synthesizer, Robert Moog. The doodle featured a synthesizer which you could either play by clicking on the keys or by typing on your computer keyboard. The sharps and flats (black notes) could be played with the numbers on your keyboard and the regular notes with the letters. The sound that emanated was electronic and you had the option of adjusting the pitch by using the pitch wheel on the left. Users had the option of recording their composition by hitting the record button on the right and playing back composition.