Constantin Meunier

See also: Miller

Constantin Meunier is a painter and Sculpteur Réaliste of the working life Belgian, born with Etterbeek (Brussels) the April 12th 1831 and deceased with Ixelles (Brussels) the April 4th 1905. Initially painter of religious scenes, it is deeply marked by his visit, in company of his friend the writer Camille Lemonnier, of the Borinage, the black country, mining basin of the Province of Hainaut in Belgium. He becomes militant socialist with the Parti working Belgian. In this time when Belgium is deeply transformed by iron and steel industrialization and the rise of the trade-union organizations , policies and co-operatives working, it will attempt to represent the work world.

" Then the chance carries out me in the black country, the industrialized country. I am struck by this tragic and savage beauty. I feel in me like a revelation of a work of life to create. An immense pity takes to me. ".

He becomes the Master of a new type of social realistic art which fills a vacuum in the representation of the reality of the time by giving a face to the workman in the middle of the industrial economic advancement. He is made the interpreter through his dark and dramatic painting of it, then (as from 1885) of his bronzes to the angular features.

A letter of Vincent Van Gogh to his/her Théo brother (written in 1889 in Saint-Rémy of-Provence) speaks about him in an extremely flattering way: " Dear Théo, In all its works, Meunier is higher than me by far. In Brussels, I saw his paintings with an exposure. In fact, it is the only one of all the Belgian artists to have strongly touched me. It painted the metal-workers of Coal-mining and their procession on the way for the mine or the factories. Its works are distinguished clearly, as well by the color as by the treatment. It painted all these things which I always dreamed to be able to realize… "

During the last years of its life, it carries out the sculptures intended for the Monument with Work. Project which will be built only after its death.

Its works are visible in the Musée Constantin Meunier arranged in the workshop of the artist, like for certain bronzes on the places and the parks of Belgium and besides.

Works in the Museums

Museum of Orsay in Paris.

- Glèbe , 1892, bronze
- Puddlers with the furnace , 1893, bronze
- the Man who drinks , 1890, bronze
- Docker of the wearing of Antwerp , 1885, bronze
- Docker , 1905, bronze
- Industry , 1892-1896, relief in bronze
- the harvest , 1895, relief in bronze

See too

Museum Constantin Meunier
Monument with Work
Constantin Meunier (film 1960)

External bond

Works of Constantin Meunier in the collections of [[royal Museums of the Art schools of Belgium]] the

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