Arthur Dupagne (cork 1895 - Brussels 1961) - Child's Head In Earth

Arthur Dupagne (Liège 1895 - Brussels 1961) - Child Head made of Terracotta

Arthur Dupagne, born in Liège on December 13, 1895 and died in Brussels in October 1961, was a Belgian sculptor. He was a pupil of Georges Petit and Oscar Berchmans at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in his hometown. A stay in the Belgian Congo from 1927 to 1935, where he was attached as an engineer to the exploitation of the diamondiferous fields of Kasaï, put him in the presence of the sculpture of the Tchokwe ethnic group which upset him, while he was struck by the vigorous plastic beauty of the natives. This discovery now inspired him to create monumental sculptures which earned him numerous commissions, including one for the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1938 and another for the New York Exhibition in 1939. His powerful work is present, among others, at the Museum of Walloon art in Liège, at the Municipal Museum of Fine Arts in Ixelles, at the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren and at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp. The Bantu Couple for the Universal Exhibition in Brussels in 1958. Bronze archer decorates the Place du Quatre Aout in Etterbeek. The Battle of the Rail (1948) in Kinshasa then Léopoldville. statue of Henry Morton Stanley in Kinshasa then Léopoldville (1956). Henry Morton Stanley was the founder of the city of Kinshasa. The Battle of the Rails and the statue of Stanley are located in the presidential park of Mont Ngaliema, the former private property of the dictator Mobutu.