CONSTANTIN MEUNIER (Belgium, 1831 - 1905). "Prawn... Lot 32

CONSTANTIN MEUNIER (Belgium, 1831 - 1905). "Prawn fisherman", ca. 1880. Bronze. Signed. Size: 41 x 27 cm.; 47 cm. high. Constantin Meunier's sculptural figures are characterised by exuding an endearing humanity, which is abundantly evident in this shrimp fisherman on his horse, on his way to the sea. Meunier initially trained with his brother, the engraver Jean-Baptiste Meunier, before entering the Brussels Academy in 1845, where he was supervised by the sculptor Louis Jehotte from 1848. Then, between 1851 and 1857, he worked in a private studio under the orders of the sculptor Charles-Auguste Fraikin and the painter François Joseph Navez. In the afternoons he attended the painting classes of Charles de Groux, of the Saint-Lucas studio, who had an important influence on Meunier. He made friends with artists such as Louis Dubois and Félicien Rops, with whom he founded the Société Libre des Beaux-Arts (Free Society of Fine Arts) in Brussels in 1868, an exponent of avant-garde realism. He began his first sculptures in the 1980s. He was particularly interested in the world of mining, such as "The explosion of firedamp" (1887, based on a real tragedy), "The miners' wives" and "Return of the miners". He worked almost exclusively in bronze, giving his figures of workers an awareness of their humanity and dignity. In 1887 he was appointed professor at the Leuven Academy and then at the Brussels Academy. He then began a set of austere sculptures dedicated to labour, which he wanted to call Monument to Labour. The group remained unfinished, as he only created four reliefs (Industry, The Harvest, The Port and The Mine) crowned with four allusive figures (The Blacksmith, The Sower, The Ancestor and The Miner); the monument was installed much later, in 1930, in Trooz Square in Brussels. In 1896 he presented a retrospective exhibition of his work at the Art Noevau Gallery in Paris, with the help of Henry Van de Velde. He was later well received in Germany and Austria. Elected member of the Royal Academy of Belgium (1900), he received several prizes as a painter (bronze medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1889) and as a sculptor (grand prize at the Universal Exhibitions of 1889 and 1900, officer of the Order of Leopold and knight of the Legion of Honour in 1889). His house in Brussels was fitted out as a museum as early as 1900, a few years before his death, which occurred while he was working on a sculptural group entitled Fecundity, in honour of the writer Émile Zola.