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Minne modelled his sculptures in clay and had them cast in plaster. After this, they were worked out in bronze, stone or wood, mostly on order from abroad. He received his most important commission from the German collector Karl Ernst Osthaus, who called on Henry Van de Velde for the construction and furnishing of the Osthaus Museum in Hagen. In addition to various other sculptures, Minne produced his principal work for the entrance hall of the Osthaus Museum: the Fountain of Kneeling Youths, in which he repeated the figure of the kneeling boy around a circular basin. He showed designs for this fountain from 1899 in a succession of exhibitions. The only surviving model in plaster is in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent; the final version in marble (1905) is in the Folkwang Museum, Essen. The Osthaus Museum (now Folkwang Museum) in Hagen has a replica of the fountain in the main hall. Later, bronze versions were executed and set up in public places.
With the sculpture group, Minne concluded his long quest recorded in various preparatory drawings and sketchbooks. He tried out several postures and combinations in which he grouped elegant figures, both standing and kneeling, around a pelvis and placed them in imaginary shapes, setting up architectural decors.
The picture shows the plaster model in the Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ghent.
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