Constantin Meunier
| Constantin Meunier | |
|---|---|
Constantin Meunier, by Max Liebermann
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| Born |
12 April 1831 Etterbeek, Belgium |
| Died | 4 April 1905 (aged 73) Brussels, Belgium |
| Nationality | Belgium |
| Occupation | Painter, sculptor |
Constantin Meunier (12 April 1831, Brussels – 4 April 1905, Ixelles) 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.
Constantin Meunier was born in the traditionally working-class area of Etterbeek in Brussels. He was encouraged to pursue an artistic career by his elder brother, the engraver Jean-Baptiste Meunier (1821–1900). He entered the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in September 1845. 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.
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), as well as of Belgium's own historical Peasants' War.
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.
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