Portrait of Constantin Meunier

Constantin Meunier was Belgium's most celebrated sculptor and painter of working-class and industrial subjects, a towering figure in European social realism whose bronze foundrymen and miners had international influence. Théo van Rysselberghe, a leading Belgian Neo-Impressionist and founder of Les Vingt, painted Meunier's portrait in 1900, creating a formal acknowledgment of the older artist's significance. The two men moved in overlapping Brussels avant-garde circles, and the portrait represents a tribute from one generation of Belgian art to another. The work is held at the Kröller-Müller Museum.

Van Rysselberghe uses a tempered version of his pointillist method — the divided touch is present but subordinated to tonal coherence. The portrait has a gravitas appropriate to its subject: a dark, serious palette; direct, unflinching gaze; the face modeled with small, controlled brushstrokes. The background is muted and unobtrusive.