Solidarity

George Minne moved in progressive circles in the 1890s, where he absorbed socialist and anarchist ideas. He was on friendly terms with influential figures like Henry Van de Velde, Emile Verhaeren, Octave Maus and Edmond Picard, all of whom were active in the Section d’Art of the Brussels Volkshuis, the cultural home of the Belgian Werkliedenpartij (Parti Ouvrier Belge). In…

George Minne moved in progressive circles in the 1890s, where he absorbed socialist and anarchist ideas. He was on friendly terms with influential figures like Henry Van de Velde, Emile Verhaeren, Octave Maus and Edmond Picard, all of whom were active in the Section d’Art of the Brussels Volkshuis, the cultural home of the Belgian Werkliedenpartij (Parti Ouvrier Belge). In 1898 Minne designed a monument for the party titled Solidarity in response to the sudden death of the journalist and socialist leader Jean Volders. This memorial was Minne’s first design for a public space. It is not a statue of Volders himself but of a slender, elongated, nude young man, which had been one of Minne’s main motifs since 1889, who is depicted twice in the sculpture. Minne’s teacher, Charles Van der Stappen, once called his pupil ‘the sculptor of the gesture’. Their specific focus on gestures and poses give Minne’s figures a tensed look, both physical and psychological. The two young men are standing with their legs apart, their forearms resting on each other, on the prow of what appears to be a sinking ship. The delicate balance between the two men is accentuated by the fragile rendering of the figures as well as the boat. Despite the men’s precarious situation, there is a dominant sense of balance. The object was to make this sculpture a universal symbol of the heartfelt human need for brotherhood, heartfelt support, assistance and solidarity. All the same, one sees that there is little deep human interaction between the men. They are not firmly holding on to each other, and are looking sideways expressionlessly. It is not clear whether it was due to that apparent lack of human contact, but the workers’ party rejected Minne’s design. The artist destroyed the plaster version, which would have been three metres tall. Minne nevertheless commercialised the basic subject. He exhibited a smaller plaster model under the title Solidarity in 1898 at the Arts and Crafts show in The Hague. Versions in bronze and marble were also made. In addition to this bronze sculpture the KMSKA has a plaster model that was donated by Henry Van de Velde in 1947. The fact that Minne felt that these two figures supporting each other were important is clear from their repetition in the Peace monument, which was also never executed but is known from designs. There the slender figures and delicate balance made way for more muscular and rigid men in a more geometrical composition. Minne frequently made variants and pastiches of his own iconographic motifs in the course of the 20th century.