Final Model for the Georges Rodenbach Memorial (reduction), ca. 1899

In memory of the French-speaking Ghent poet Georges Rodenbach, who died in 1898, George Minne designed a commemorative monument by order of the Société des Artistes et Ecrivains Français. The Rodenbach memorial initially bore the title Bruges-la-Morte, after the poet's novel of the same name. The final version can be found in the Old St Elizabeth Beguinage in Ghent. The design shown here is a reduction of the plaster design from 1899, which is also in the possession of the MSK Gent (inv. 1982-M). It shows a reclining female figure who seems slowly to be rising above the earth in which she lies. The modesty and the simplified, purified language of form are in keeping with The Fountain with Kneeling Youths (inv. 1982-E).