Join Photoblog!

Constantin Meunier

2012.09.03

The Sower or Autumn

Débardeur du port d'Anvers [Antwerp Harbour Docks]

Débardeurs were men who loaded and unloaded the ships, more commonly known as dockers today. While avoiding sordid realism, Débardeur du port d'Anvers, sculpted by Meunier, became an archetypal representation of the individual's alienation through work. An initial wax version was exhibited in 1885 in Brussels at the Salon des XX. When the great plaster sculpture was presented in Paris at the Salon de la Société nationale des Beaux-arts in 1889, it was well received by the critics: "…never has such tragic and touching expression, such energy, oppression, suffering and resignation been put into a figure, with such intensity."
The political dimension of the Débardeur, an urban, working class figure, can be compared to Dalou's Peasant, a rural, peasant figure. Moreover, the two artists embody a style soon to be called ‘social sculpture'. However, unlike Dalou, Meunier preferred a synthesis rather than dwelling on details denoting the social role of his model. The pose is strongly portrayed; the volumes boldly distributed.

The statue depicts a pincerman, a 19th-century laborer who used giant pincers to grasp bars of hot metal.

The horse at the pond.

August 03, 2012

At the very end of the 19th century, Constantin Meunier (1831-1905), whose talent was finally recognised internationally, had a house-studio built where he could live and work, in the rue de l'Abbaye, in Ixelles (Brussels). He lived there for the last five years of life. The house - with its important collection of more than 700 works - was acquired by the State in 1936 and opened to the public in 1939. This museum, which is now part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Brussels, has been renovated and, since 1986, visitors have been able to discover a choice of approximately 150 works and documents. It focuses in particular on the life of the master between 1875 and 1905, that second life in his own words, where he turned his talent to the social and industrial realities of Belgium, first of all through a series of paintings and drawings, then from 1885, through a return to sculpture, which consecrated his reputation as one of the greatest creative artists of the genre.