Bronze sculpture of a goat by Léon Mignon

25 cm high x 30 cm wide

Léon Mignon (Liège - Schaarbeek 1898) was a Belgian sculptor working in realist idiom. Mignon completed his studies at the Académie des Beaux-Arts de Liège in 1871. He made his first showing at the Salon of Gent, and obtained a fellowship from the Fondation Darchis for further study in Italy.  He set up his studio in Paris in 1876 in collaboration with Paul de Vigne, then settled permanently at Schaarbeek. He won a gold medal at the Paris Salon for his sculpture Li Tore, the Bull-Tamer 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 royale des Beaux-Arts de Liège to ptotect it during Word War II. The bull has become an emblem for all Liège, with the city motto "Liège, forcer l’avenir!", "Liège, make the future happen!"   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.