Constantin Meunier (1831 Etterbeck - 1905 Ixelles) "Le débardeur du port d'Anvers". Original title Bronze, olive-coloured patina, after 1893. Fully sculpted, modern, stylised, archetypal depiction of a young Antwerp dock worker or stevedore in a self-confident pose. When Meunier presented the large plaster model at the Salon de la Société nationale des Beaux-arts in Paris in 1889, the critics were enthusiastic. As early as 1890, the French government acquired its first bronze cast (in the Musée d'Orsay). A life-size Débardeur was erected in Antwerp and became the city's landmark (further versions in Frankfurt am Main, Dresden, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Boston). Numerous bronze reductions in various sizes were created after 1893. H. 46.3 cm. Provenance: Dissolution of an important German private collection - part II. Dark (olive) patinated bronze. Cast after 1893.