- Léon Mignon
Léon Mignon (
Liège 1847 —Schaerbeek 1898) was a Belgian sculptor working in a realist idiom, known for his depiction ofbull s.Born at Liège, Léon Mignon completed his studies at the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Liège in 1871. He made his first showing at the Salon of Ghent, and obtained a fellowship from the Fondation Darchis for further study in Italy.
He set up his studio in
Paris in 1876 in collaboration withPaul de Vigne , then settled permanently atSchaerbeek . He won a gold medal at the Paris Salon for his sculpture "Li Tore", the Bull-Tamer ("illustration") which provoked polemics from critics for its combination of nudity with forthright realism."Li Tore", set up at Liège, became the mascot of the students, who hid it in the cellars of the Académie to protect it during
World War II . The bull has become anemblem for all Liège, with the city motto "Liège, forcer l’avenir!", "Liège, make the future happen!"A bronze on a similar theme, his "Le Dompteur de Taureaux" (1881), which had been noticed at the retrospective exhibition of Belgian sculpture the previous year (in its plaster model), and was championed by Gustave Rolin-Jaequemyns, Minister of the Interior, stands on the Terrasses d'Avroy, Liège. Though a scarf had been added to the model to disguise the figure's nudity, the sculpture scandalised the editors of the Catholic daily, "La Gazette de Liège." [ [http://www.wittert.ulg.ac.be/expo/19e/album/173_mignon_tore.html Vers la modernité. Le XIXe siècle au Pays de Liège] .]
One among his "
animalier " sculptures is to be seen at the Botanical Garden of Brussels: "The Olive Tree, or Peace", representing an agricultural worker with his ox. His early "Combat de taureaux dans la campagne romaine" is conserved in the Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.Other sculptures include "Hide-and-Seek" and "Lady Godiva".
Both Schaerbeek and Liège possess a rue Léon Mignon.
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