(1866-1941)
The sculptor and illustrator George Minne was born in Ghent on 30 August 1866. He studied there and at the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels from 1895 to 1899. From 1890, he exhibited with Les XX and, beginning in 1898, with La Libre Esthétique. Minne is noted for the emotional power of his works, including many images of a maternal figure mourning her dead child (Mèrepleurant son enfant mort [1886]). His most popular sculpture is Fontaine des agenouillés (Fountain of the kneeling youth [1899]). Minne was hailed by symbolist writers such as Maurice Maeterlinck and Émile Verhaeren, whose works he illustrated. He lived in Brussels from 1895 to 1899 and then moved to Sint-Martens-Latem, near Ghent, where he died on 18 February 1941.
Historical Dictionary of Brussels. Paul F. State.