Man with a Waterskin

In this delicately balanced sculpture a slender youth stands, legs rooted to the earth, emptying a leather waterskin. Although secular in theme, this figure was originally derived from a depiction of Christian St. John the Baptist pouring water over Jesus. The sack and its contents, the element of water, retained spiritual associations of purity and closeness to nature for the artist George Minne. The abstract effect of this work is characteristic of Minne’s elongated sculptures of the adolescent body. From the 1890s, Minne’s avant-garde output won him international renown.