Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Contemporary Art Society
Collection
<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/edouard-pignon-1771" aria-label="More by Edouard Pignon" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Edouard Pignon</a>
Miner
Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1951
abstraction
adults
figure
French
from recognisable sources
industrial and crafts
industrial society
leisure and pastimes
man
miner
nationality
people
recreational activities
smoking
social comment
society
work and occupations
<p>Pignon's father was a miner and he himself had worked down the pits as a young man in the Pas-de-Calais, France. In 1949-50 he made a series of paintings about the official suppression of strikes and demands for better working conditions. Although a Communist Party member, Pignon departed somewhat from the official Socialist Realist style. In his depiction of the man rolling a cigarette, for example, he employs a simplification that is indebted to Picasso.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
The Miner
support: 921 × 730 mm
frame: 1220 × 1028 × 90 mm
Presented by the <a href="/search?gid=999999975" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Contemporary Art Society</a> 1951
<p>Pignon's father was a miner and he himself  had worked down the pits as a young man in  the Pas-de-Calais, France. In 1949-50 he made  a series of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> about the official suppression of strikes and demands for better working conditions. Although a Communist Party member, Pignon departed somewhat from the official <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/socialist-realism" title="Glossary definition for 'Socialist Realism'"><span>Socialist Realist</span></a> style. In his depiction of the man rolling a cigarette, for example, he employs  a simplification that is indebted to Picasso. </p>
Display caption
2004-08-31T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
<p><b>Edouard Pignon</b><span> born 1905 [- 1993] </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span><a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/pignon-the-miner-n06037" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N06037</span></a> </span><b>Le Mineur</b><span> (The Miner) 1949 </span>
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<p><span>Inscribed 'Pignon | 49' b.r.</span>
<br/><span>Oil on canvas, 36 1/4 x 28 3/8 (92 x 73)</span>
<br/><span>Presented by the Contemporary Art Society 1951</span>
<br/><i>Prov:</i><span>
CAS (purchased from the artist through the Leicester Galleries 1950)</span>
<br/><i>Exh:</i><span>
</span><i>In Paris now</i><span>, Leicester Galleries, London, April-May 1950 (48); </span><i>Some Recent Purchases of the CAS</i><span>, Arts Council touring exhibition, May 1951-January 1952 (42); </span><i>CAS: The First Fifty Years 1910-60</i><span>, Tate Gallery, April-May 1960 (159)</span>
<br/><i>Repr:</i><span>
</span><i>XX</i><i>e</i><i>
Siècle</i><span>, No.1, 1951, p.50; Jean-Louis Ferrier, </span><i>Pignon</i><span>
(Paris 1976), p.72 </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>The artist writes: 'My father was a miner and I also worked down a coal mine in my youth at Marles-les-Mines, in the Pas-de-Calais. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>'This particular work belongs to a series of <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>paintings</span></a> inspired by the gesture of a miner rolling his cigarette. There are several paintings on the same theme in different collections or museums. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>'Most of the paintings based on Marles-les-Mines at that period had the mine as theme (centred around a very large painting entitled "The Dead Worker") or else the "Cock Fights", which are the miners' favourite pastime' (letter of 8 September 1976). </span>
<br/></p>
<p><span>It is reproduced alongside three further paintings on the same theme, from the period 1948-52, in Fernier, op. cit., pp.72-3. </span>
<br/></p>
<p><b>Published in:</b>
<br/><span>Ronald Alley, </span><i>Catalogue of the Tate Gallery's Collection of Modern Art other than Works by British Artists</i><span>, Tate Gallery and Sotheby Parke-Bernet, London 1981, p.609, reproduced p.609 </span>
<br/></p>

Catalogue entry
2004-09-15T00:00:00
catalogue-entry
CATALOGUE_ENTRY
abstraction adults figure French from recognisable sources industrial and crafts industrial society leisure and pastimes man miner nationality people recreational activities smoking social comment society work and occupations