MEUNIER Constantin

PICKING FLOWERS

Oil on canvas: 90 x 70.3 cm / 35.4 x 27.7 ins
Signed lower right

Painter of figures, children, genre scenes and religious subjects; sculptor, engraver and draughtsman.

Constantin Meunier was a pupil of the Brussels Academy. This talented artist revealed himself quite tardily. After having begun as a sculptor, he soon devoted all his time to painting, not picking up the chisel again until 1885. In 1886, he was named professor at Louvain and in a short time he rose above his counterparts. He was by excellence the sculptor of the workingman: first the longshoremen at Antwerp and the miners at Borinage, then the workers of all trades in every region. He rose to global fame after the huge success  of his Paris Exhibition in 1896.

Today Meunier is considered one of the most powerful and pure artists of all time; he succeeded in giving his works a classical beauty.

Period:
Etterbeek (Brussels) 1831- Ixelles (Brussels) 1905
Belgian School

Exhibitions:
Antwerp - Berlin - Brussels - Courtrai - Copenhague - Dresden - Düsseldorf - Essen - Ghent - Hamburg - Hanover - Leipzig - Magdeburg - Munich - Ostend - Paris - Rome - Sète - Stockholm - Valenciennes

Literature:
P. & V. Berko, "Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875", Knokke 1981, p. 466-467.