Jozef Cantré (1890-1957): 'Fertilité' or 'La pomme', green patinated plaster, dated 1919

H 40 - L 34,5 - D 9,5 cm

Jozef Cantré, like his older brother, the woodcarver Jan-Frans (1866-1931), was a student at the Ghent Academy of Fine Arts, where he was taught by Jean Delvin. Cantré was influenced by the social realism of Constantin Meunier, but also by the symbolism of George Minne. At the end of the First World War, Cantré moved to the Netherlands. In 1930 he returned to Ghent and came into contact with the intellectuals of the socialist spiritual life, such as Paul-Gustave van Hecke and Frits van den Berghe. In 1938, August Balthazar and Emile Langui commissioned him to cut the monument of Edward Anseele. The statue, in Scottish Balmoral granite, was unveiled in 1948. In 1941 Cantré became a member of the Royal Flemish Academy for Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium. Through Anseele (jr.) he received numerous public commissions (a relief in the Central Station in Brussels, 1953; the relief and frieze of the EGW building on Zuidplein in Ghent, 1954, etc., link).