The Man with a Waterskin
Artist / maker
George Minne (sculptors)Date
1897Period
19th centuryCollection
Museum of Fine Arts Ghent
In The Man with a Waterskin by George Minne we see a thin, sinewy man lifting a leather water bag to pour water. This is one of the few sculptures for which Minne made a series of preliminary drawings. They are in a sketchbook dated 1897-1898, which is also in the museum collection. In the sketches we see how Minne…
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In The Man with a Waterskin by George Minne we see a thin, sinewy man lifting a leather water bag to pour water. This is one of the few sculptures for which Minne made a series of preliminary drawings. They are in a sketchbook dated 1897-1898, which is also in the museum collection. In the sketches we see how Minne develops the composition from a baptism scene. Although in Christian symbolism water is the source of life, at the fin de siècle it represented the descent into the ‘primal waters within us’, a descent that leads to self-knowledge. This ambiguity is typical of Minne’s art.
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