Cockfight

Cockfight (1883) by Constantin Meunier has joined the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, thanks to the intervention of the Isabelle and Philippe Dewez Fund. This work sheds light on the artist’s stay in Seville and his artistic development, as well as filling an important gap in the reference collection of the Meunier Museum, the most complete collection devoted to this important Belgian artist.

A missing piece in the collection

The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium hold almost 850 works by Meunier at the Meunier Museum, comprising some 500 drawings, 250 sculptures and around one hundred paintings. Together, the works constitute the reference collection of this major Belgian artist who, still today, remains relatively unrecognised. Among the collection is a nucleus of works relating to Meunier’s stay in Seville, between 1882 and 1883, at the request of the Belgian government, to copy a work by the Flemish Renaissance artist Pieter de Kempeneer in Seville Cathedral. Outside of his official mission, Meunier constantly sketched and painted scenes from daily life in Andalucía. Four main themes characterize the works: the tobacco manufactury, the cabaret (flamenco), the Holy Week procession and the cock fighting. Until this acquisition, the theme of cock fighting was the only one not represented by a painting among the collections of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. This painting provides an essential link between two drawings kept at the MRBAB and a painting in the collection of the Province of Brabant Walloon.

At the heart of the creative process

The small format of the Cockfight painting, as well as its highly synthetic style, indicate that Meunier must have produced this initial painting shortly after making the ink drawing. If the latter was composed in the cockpit itself, the first oil composition was no doubt executed in the studio/room that Meunier was renting with his son Karl, and before the larger composition that is today in the Province of Brabant Walloon’s collection. The canvas is distinguished by a synthetic and energetic touch that is typical of works made in situ. Meunier experiments with the placing of figures, which he reorganizes in order to create a scene that is more rhythmic and balanced. As such, the work offers rare insight to the artist’s creative process, revealing the passage from direct observation to finished composition.

A key moment in Meunier’s career

Meunier’s stay in Seville - lasting some eight months – marked a decisive turning point in his career. It was following this experience that Meunier turned to social realism, a style that would bring him international renown in the following years. Cockfight was acquired by the Isabelle and Philippe Dewez Fund at Galerie De Vuyst. In joining the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, the work has significantly enriched what was already an exceptional collection, offering the general public as well as researchers, fresh insight into a formative period for one of the greatest Belgian artists of the 19th century.

Two generous philanthropists

Isabelle and Philippe Dewez created, within the King Baudouin Foundation, a Fund whose mission is to promote accessibility to works of art and to hand them on to future generations by making them available to Belgian museums. Thanks to the acquisition of this work, the Isabelle and Philippe Dewez Fund has enabled a gap to be filled in a collection that is unique in the world!