George Minne

Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, George Minne en de kunst rond 1900, September - December 1982, pp. 148-149, cat. no. 71, illustration of another cast

A. de Ridder, Monographieën over Belgische Kunst, George Minne, Antwerpen 1960, cat no. 9, illustration of another cast
L. van Puyvelde, George Minne, Brussels, p. 77, cat no. 26, illustration of another cast

This work is in good condition.
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George Minne was a very talented artist who, as a student, made impressive progress in a short period of time. He soon discovered he wanted to be a sculptor and that he wanted to focus on the human being, especially on the psychology of his subjects. Minne finished his studies around 1885 and five years later he was part of the artistic world in Brussels. He was allowed into various salons, was welcomed into the club of Les XX, the gallery of the Parisian art dealer Durand Ruel and was even well acquainted with Auguste Rodin.

l'Agenouillé de la Fontaine is one of Minne's many well known kneeling figures for a fountain which was produced five times to exhibit at La Libre Esthétique (Bruxelles, 1899), Wiener Secession (Vienna, 1900), Venetian Biennale (Venice, 1909) and other exhibitions in Budapest (1908-09), Berlin (1910) and Hagen (1912). The combination of the head bent forward and his arms wrapped around is shoulders gives this work a sense of resignation and religious submission. With this the artist captured an atmosphere of spiritual unease, strikingly contemporary in its outlook. The proportions, softly modelled flesh and unstable posture of his simple mystical figures express anxiety.