Constantin Meunier

Constantin Meurnier
Constantin Meunier, by Max Liebermann
Born	(1831-04-12)12 April 1831 Etterbeek, Belgium
Died	4 April 1905(1905-04-04) Brussels, Belgium
Nationality	Belgium
Occupation	Painter, sculptor

The Horse at the Pond 1899

Le Débardeur (The Dock Worker)

Constantin Meunier (12 April 1831 – 4 April 1905), Belgian painter and sculptor, was born in Etterbeek, Brussels.

Life

Constantin Meunier was born in the traditionally working-class area of Etterbeek, near Brussels.

Art career

His first exhibit was a plaster sketch, "The Garland," shown at the Brussels Salon in 1851. Soon afterwards, on the advice of the painter Charles de Groux, he abandoned the chisel for the brush. His first important painting, "The Salle St Roch" (1857), was followed by a series of paintings including "A Trappist Funeral" (1860), "Trappists Ploughing" (1863), in collaboration with Alfred Verwee, "Divine Service at the Monastery of La Trappe" (1871) and episodes of the German Peasants' War (1878).

About 1880 he was commissioned to illustrate those parts of Camille Lemonnier's description of Belgium in Le Tour du monde which referred to miners and factory-workers, and produced "In the Factory," "Smithery at Cockerill's," "Melting Steel at the Factory at Seraing" (1882), "Returning from the Pit," and "The Broken Crucible" (1884).

In 1882 he was employed by the government to copy Pedro de Campaña's "Descent from the Cross" at Seville, and in Spain he painted such characteristic pictures as "The Café Concert," "Procession on Good Friday," and "The Tobacco Factory at Seville" (Brussels Gallery). On his return to Belgium he was appointed professor at the Louvain Academy of Fine Arts.

In 1885 he returned to statuary and produced " The Puddler," "The Hammerer" (1886), "Firedamp" (1889, Brussels Gallery), "Le Débardeur" (modeled 1885, many castings made 1889-1905), "Ecce Homo" (1891), "The Old Mine-Horse" (1891), "The Mower" (1892), "The Glebe" (1892), the monument to Father Damien at Louvain (1893), "Puddler at the Furnace" (1893), the scheme of decoration for the Botanical Garden of Brussels in collaboration with the sculptor Charles van der Stappen (1893), "The Horse at the Pond," in the square in the north-east quarter of Brussels, and two unfinished works, the "Monument to Labour" and the Émile Zola monument, in collaboration with the French sculptor Alexandre Charpentier.

The "Monument to Labour," which was acquired by the State for the Brussels Gallery, comprises four stone bas-reliefs, "Industry," "The Mine," "Harvest," and the "Harbour"; four bronze statues, "The Sower" "The Smith" "The Miner," and the "Ancestor"; and a bronze group, "Maternity".

He was one of the co-founders of the Société Libre des Beaux-Arts of Brussels and was a member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers.^[1]

Freemasonary

He was a freemason, and a member of the lodge Les Amis Philanthropes of the Grand Orient of Belgium in Brussels.^{[citation needed]}

Death

Meunier died at Brussels on 4 April 1905.

Museum

In 1939, a museum dedicated to his work was opened in the last house in which Meunier lived and worked, in Ixelles, Brussels. Today about 150 of his works are displayed there.^[2]

Bibliography

• P. & V. Berko, "Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875", Knokke 1981, p. 466-467.

External links

• Works of Constantin Meunier at the Museum of Modern Art, Brussels
• The Constantin Meunier Museum, Brussels

References

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press 

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