''Le Marteleur'' (; variously translated as ''The Hammerman'' or ''The Drop Forger'') is a

bronze sculpture Bronze is the most popular metal for Casting (metalworking), cast metal sculptures; a cast bronze sculpture is often called simply "a bronze". It can be used for statues, singly or in groups, reliefs, and small statuettes and figurines, as w ...

by Belgian sculptor

Constantin Meunier Constantin Meunier (; 12 April 1831 – 4 April 1905) was a Belgian Painting, painter and sculpture, sculptor. He made an important contribution to the development of modern art by elevating the image of the industrial worker, docker and mi ...

. It depicts a

hammerman ''Hammerman'' is an animated television series, starring rapper MC Hammer, which aired for thirteen episodes on ABC in the fall of 1991. It was produced by DIC Animation City and Italian company Reteitalia S.p.A., in association with Spanish ne ...

holding a pair of pincers and wearing an apron, cap, and spats. Created in 1886, several casts of the statue exist, including one on the campus of

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

History

''Le Marteleur'' was contemporaneous with the

Belgian strike of 1886 The Belgian strikes of 1886, occasionally known as the social revolt of 1886 (), was a violent period of industrial strikes and riots in Belgium from 18 to 29 March 1886 and an important moment in Belgium's 19th-century history. The strike and ...

, considered by historians to be the first time the Belgian

working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...

achieved significant concessions from the national government. Inspired by the "plastic grandeur of the industrial worker," Meunier's work reflected the political and economic developments of his day in his depiction of the hammerer: while the realism of the statue indicated the difficulty of the worker's labor, the ''

contrapposto ( 'counterpoise'), in the visual arts, is a human figure standing with most of its weight on one foot, so that its shoulders and arms twist off-axis from the hips and legs in the axial plane. First appearing in Ancient Greece in the early 5th ...

'' posture of its subject, borrowed from Classical and Renaissance sculpture, idealized and elevated him. The plaster cast of the statue was exhibited at the Parisian Salon 1886, where it earned an honorable mention. The Columbia cast of ''Le Marteleur'' was gifted to the university in 1914 by the Columbia University School of Mines Class of 1889. It was originally located in front of

Lewisohn Hall Lewisohn Hall is a building on the Columbia University campus in Manhattan, New York. Completed in 1905, it was designed by Arnold W. Brunner in imitation of the other McKim, Mead & White buildings on campus, and named after banker and mining m ...

, but now stands in front of the Mudd Building, where the

Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (also known as SEAS or Columbia Engineering; historically Columbia School of Mines) is the engineering and applied science school of Columbia University, a private research university ...

s is located.

References

{{Public art in Manhattan 1886 sculptures Columbia University campus Bronze sculptures in Manhattan Belgian art Statues in New York City