Alfred COurtens · (1889–1967)
La Source
(Fountain)
Technical sheet
| ARTIST | Alfred Courtens |
| DATE | 1927 |
| material | Stone |
| DIMENSIONS | 408 x 258 x 100 cm • Weight : 9 500 kg |
| Signature | Alfred Courtens 1927 |
| PROVENANCE | Vertongen Family, Hôtel de Maître, 221 rue d’Arras • Douai, France |
| CONSERVATION | Château Pétrus • Pomerol, France |
About the work
“La Source” depicts two young women gathering bunches of grapes, each resting a foot on the rim of a vast shell that forms the fountain’s basin. At the centre, between the two figures, a ram’s head spouts water into the pool. One of the young women is shown from the front, the other from behind, offering a truthful and sumptuous rendering of the nude body.
Through the abundance of grapes, the ceaselessly flowing water and the sensuality of the bodies, the artist celebrates fertility, nature and beauty all at once. In a Clodionesque vein, this monumental fountain sings of life and the joy of living. It displays the full technical virtuosity of Alfred Courtens, then at the height of his art, in the very year he was appointed professor at the Academy of Dendermonde.
Commissioned in 1927 by the Belgian industrialist Vertongen family for their maison de maître in Douai, where aviation pioneers Louis Blériot and Louis Breguet are said to have stayed. It is today kept at Château Petrus, in Pomerol.
the ARTIST
alfred courtens
Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, 1889 — 1967
Alfred Courtens belonged to a distinguished family of Belgian artists: his father, the painter Frans Courtens (1854–1943), won the gold medal at the 1889 Paris Universal Exhibition. A pupil of Charles Van der Stappen at the Brussels Academy and then of Thomas Vinçotte, and winner of the Godecharle Prize in 1913, he discovered in Italy the Florentine Renaissance sculpture that would leave a lasting mark on his art.
After the First World War, his war memorials, in Diksmuide, La Louvière and Arendonk, brought him wide renown. He became the official sculptor of the Belgian nation and dynasty, creating the equestrian statues of Kings Albert I and Leopold III, the effigies of Queens Elisabeth and Astrid, and numerous royal busts. Commander of the Order of the Crown and Knight of the Legion of Honour, he ranks among the great Belgian sculptors of the twentieth century.
