Label Text:
Meunier’s "Stone Breaker" depicts the moment at which a heroic laborer begins to swing his hammer to break large stones into smaller, usable pieces. His face and body are generalized so that the figure can be read as an emblem of an entire class of workers. In tribute to labor’s might and resolve, Meunier delicately modeled the stonebreaker’s sinewy muscles, which are additionally enhanced by the worker’s thin, almost transparent clothing and the bronze’s dark patina.
Known during his lifetime as the “artist of the Flemish collieries” and the Jean-François Millet of workers, Meunier is best-known today for his sculptures and paintings of Belgium’s industrial and agricultural worlds. He created this bronze for the employees of the Quenast porphyry quarry, the largest stone works in the world at the time, and as a gift to one M. Urban, director of operations. This quarry also was the scene of a famous eight-month labor strike in 1889, and thus would have held particular resonance for Meunier.
Written by Professor Sura Levine, Hampshire College
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=AC+1973.2 |
