Constantin Meunier

{{Infobox person

| name = Constantin Meunier

| image = Constantin Meunier - Painted self-portrait.jpeg

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption = Self-portrait, 1885

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1831|4|12}}

| birth_place = Etterbeek, Belgium

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1905|4|4|1831|4|12}}

| death_place = Ixelles, Belgium

| other_names =

| known_for =

| occupation = Painter, sculptor

}}

Constantin Meunier ({{IPA|fr|kɔ̃stɑ̃tɛ̃ mønje}}; 12 April 1831 – 4 April 1905) was a Belgian painter and sculptor. He made an important contribution to the development of modern art by elevating the image of the industrial worker, docker and miner to an icon of modernity. His work is a reflection of the industrial, social and political developments of his day and represents a compassionate and committed view of man and the world.[https://www.mleuven.be/en/meunier-leuven Meunier in Leuven] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207101418/https://www.mleuven.be/en/meunier-leuven |date=7 December 2021 }} at M-Museum Leuven

Early life and education

Constantin Meunier was born in the traditionally working-class area of Etterbeek in Brussels. His family was poor and suffered from the negative economic impact caused by the Belgian Revolution which had taken place the year before Meunier's birth. Meunier's father committed suicide when he was just four years old.[http://www.jeanmoust.com/artists/art/meunier-constantin/the-retur-from-harvest-at-dusk-1230964 Constantin Meunier, The return from harvest at dusk] at Jean Moust

File:Constantin Meunier - Mining region.jpg

He began studying sculpture at the age of 14 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in September 1845.[http://www.flanderstoday.eu/art/retrospective-reveals-flemish-inspirations-constantin-meunier Ian Mundell, Retrospective reveals the Flemish inspirations of Constantin Meunier] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210101061722/http://www.flanderstoday.eu/art/retrospective-reveals-flemish-inspirations-constantin-meunier |date=1 January 2021 }} at Flanders Today He studied under the sculptor Louis Jehotte (1804–84) from 1848. He also attended from 1852 the private studio of the sculptor Charles-Auguste Fraikin.Pierre Baudson. "Meunier, Constantin." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 6 March 2016 While he encountered modestly success as a sculptor, his encounter with Gustave Courbet's social realist painting The Stone Breakers in 1851 caused him to doubt the ability of sculpture to adequate represent the contemporary social and artistic issues that were of concern to him. He therefore gave up sculpture in favour of painting which he practised almost exclusively for the next thirty years.

Career

File:Constantin Meunier - Ophelia.jpeg

Meunier's first exhibit was a plaster sketch, The Garland, shown at the Brussels Salon in 1851. 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),{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} as well as of Belgium's own historical Peasants' War.

About 1880 Meunier 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).{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

File:Constantin Meunier - Three female miners.jpg

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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

In 1885 he returned to sculpture and produced The Puddler, The Hammerman (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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

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.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

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.{{cite web|url=http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib2_1203018932|title=The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers|work=Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851-1951|publisher=Glasgow University|access-date=31 May 2013|archive-date=1 July 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130701230213/http://sculpture.gla.ac.uk/view/organization.php?id=msib2_1203018932|url-status=dead}}

Meunier was a freemason and a member of the lodge Les Amis Philanthropes of the Grand Orient of Belgium in Brussels.Berend Bunk, Les trésors du Temple: le Musée belge de la Franc-maçonnerie, Fonds Mercator, 2006, p. 109

Meunier died in Ixelles on 4 April 1905.Meunier, Constantin, and Sekula, Allan (2005). Constantin Meunier: A Dialogue with Allan Sekula. Belgium, Leuven University Press. p. 28. {{ISBN|9058674886}}.

Works

File:Constantin Meunier - Path descending from the slag heap.jpg|Path descending from the slag heap

File:Potato Diggers.jpg|Potato diggers

File:Tobacco Factory, Sevilla – No.2.jpg|Tobacco Factory, Sevilla

File:Café del Buzero, Sevilla.jpg|Café del Buzero, Sevilla

File:Constantin Meunier - Unloading of a sailboat.jpg|Unloading of a sailboat

File:Constantin Meunier - Return from the mine.jpg|The Return of the Miners

File:Constantin Meunier - Female miner descending into the pit.jpg|Female miner descending into the pit

File:Constantin Meunier - The organ grinder.jpg|The organ grinder

File:Sædemand.JPG|The sower

File:MFA Meunier Le Débardeur.jpg|The Dock Worker

File:Bruxelles square Ambiorix 901.jpg|The Horse at the Pond 1899

File:Man Battling with the Elements, bronze sculpture by Constantin Meunier, 1890-1899, Honolulu Museum of Art.JPG|Man Battling with the Elements

File:Belgique - Bruxelles - Botanique - L'Automne ou Le Semeur de Constantin Meunier - 01.jpg|Autumn (Botanical Garden of Brussels)

File:Le Marteleur Meunier.jpg|The Hammerman

Museum collections

In 1939, the Musée Constantin-Meunier 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.{{cite web|title=Constantin Meunier Museum|url=http://www.opt.be/informations/tourist_attractions_ixelles__constantin_meunier_museum/en/V/15728.html|publisher=Belgian Tourist Office (Brussels-Wallonia)|access-date=9 April 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512054843/http://www.opt.be/informations/tourist_attractions_ixelles__constantin_meunier_museum/en/V/15728.html|archive-date=12 May 2013}} M - Museum Leuven also holds a number of important works by Meunier,[http://www.mleuven.be/en/old-masters/meunier/index.jsp Meunier in Leuven] at M - Museum Leuven as does Brussels' Fin-de-Siècle Museum. The Galleria d’arte moderna di Milano, one of the most important modern art collection in Italy, holds “The fisherman of Ostend”, 1850.

References

Sources

{{EB1911|wstitle=Meunier, Constantin|volume=18|page=315}}
P. & V. Berko, "Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875", Knokke 1981, pp. 466–467.