GVSU art showcased in Belgium exhibition

One of Grand Valley State University’s 12,000 pieces of art has found a temporary home in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.

At the request of the museum, Grand Valley’s “Allegory of the Death of Lincoln” is joining approximately 850 other works of art by the late artist Constantin Meunier in a special retrospective exhibit celebrating his work.
 

“It is one of his earlier works and marks a shift toward his realistic paintings with an emphasis on the depiction of social issues, which would later come to define part of his artistic identity,” said Nathan Kemler, Curator of Collections Management at Grand Valley.

The one-of-a-kind painting will be on display in Brussels until the exhibition’s end date of January 11, 2015.

Born in Belgium in 1831, Meunier began his artistic training as a sculptor when he was 14 years old. In his early 20s, Meunier shifted from sculpting to painting — focusing on a realist style through historical scenes. Throughout the 1850s to 1870s, he almost exclusively painted religious subjects, but in the 1880s, Meunier began sculpting again and switched subjects to depict city and agricultural life. His later works focus on Belgium’s industries of steel and glass production, as well as coal mining, from the perspective of the heroic worker.