Constantin Meunier. Constantin Meunier 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. 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. He began studying sculpture at the age of 14 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in September 1845.
He studied under the sculptor Louis Jehotte from 1848. He also attended from 1852 the private studio of the sculptor Charles-Auguste Fraikin. 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. His first exhibit was a plaster sketch, The Garland, shown at th
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. 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. He began studying sculpture at the age of 14 at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in September 1845.
He studied under the sculptor Louis Jehotte from 1848. He also attended from 1852 the private studio of the sculptor Charles-Auguste Fraikin. 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. His first exhibit was a plaster sketch, The Garland, shown at th
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