CONSTANTIN MEUNIER (1831-1905) DEBARDEUR DU PORT D’ANVERS, 1893

patinated bronze, signed C. Meunier, J. BETERMANN/ FONDEUR/ BRUXELLES

48.5cm (19 1/8 in) high

Provenance:
Purchased from Jeremy Cooper, 1981.

Literature:

Coleman, B., The Best of British Arts & Crafts, Atglen, 2004, p. 240 (illustrated);

Weisberg, G. P., Becker, E. and Possémé, E. (eds), The Orgins of L’Art Nouveau The Bing Empire, (exhib. cat.) Amsterdam, Paris and Antwerp, 2004, p. 240, fig. 284 (period photograph from Kunstbibliothek, Dresden, illustrating a similar example displayed at the International Art Exhibition, Dresden, 1897).

Note:

An initial wax version of this model of a dock worker was exhibited at the Salon De XX in Brussels in 1885, before a larger plaster was shown at the National Society of Fine Arts in Paris in 1889 to much acclaim: ‘never had one, with such intensity, put in a figure so tragic expression and touching, energy, suffering and resignation’. In 1890 the French State bought a version in bronze, which now resides at the Musée d'Orsay and a life-size copy resides in the main square in Antwerp, to the point of almost being a symbol of the city.