Smart

Picture Smart aptly illustrates the social conscience of Constantin Meunier (1831-1905). When life Meunier had an international reputation with his images of heroic workers. This image, however, goes a step further. Meunier not only created a popular woman, disabled bent over her in a coal mine crashed son. He created a contemporary Pietà, timeless, stripped of incriminating anecdote. The picture is probably Meunier first design for the mother figure in the life large group Grauw Fire (Leuven, City Hall), and was first introduced to the public at the Paris World Exposition in 1889.