Young Boy

The theme of the naked youth is frequently found in Minne's sculpture and drawings. His most famous sculpture group, 'The Fountain of the Kneeling Youths', comprises five identical, introverted naked youths kneeling on the edge of a water basin (inv. 1982-E). The concept dates back to 1898 and the only plaster model is kept in the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent. This sheet shows the frail naked body of a youth and it is executed in an extremely soft drawing style with shrouded outlines. The youth embraces himself on the one hand for protection, but also out of self-love. His gaze looks anxiously and timidly at the spectator. Embrace and entwine can be seen in several images by George Minne. This drawing bears a great resemblance to 'The Small Injured Youth', an image that the artist made in 1889. The expressiveness and spiritual power of Minne's work made a great impression on symbolist poets such as Maeterlinck, Le Roy and Verhaeren, whose poetry Minne illustrated in several collections.