After Victor Demanent

After VICTOR DEMANET (Givet, France, 1895 - Ixelles, Belgium, 1964).
"La forcé".
Blued bronze.
Signed.
Measurements: 8,5 x 10 x 6,5 cm,
According to the catalog of the exhibition held at the MEAM, "Victor Demanet was a student at the School of Fine Arts in Namur. Despite the first recognitions achieved in the field, he abandoned sculpture to enlist as a soldier in the First World War. During the war, he was stationed in Brussels, where the discovery of Meunier's work acted as a revelation to him. This revelation was confirmed when in 1921 he traveled to Paris and became acquainted with the sculpture of Rude, Carpeaux and, above all, Rodin. It was then that he recovered his passion for sculpture. In 1923 he exhibited his bust Napoleon in Arcole, which consecrated him and gave him access to public and private commissions, even international, producing monumental works, medals or portraits of important Belgian personalities, such as the painter James Ensor or his master, the sculptor Désiré Hubin. His main themes were sports and, especially, the world of work, where he combined his two great influences in a personal way: Meunier's subject matter with a plastic treatment indebted to Rodin.