Charles van der Stappen
Encyclopedia
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
, born in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode
Saint-Josse-ten-Noode
Sint-Joost-ten-Node or Saint-Josse-ten-Noode is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium....
.
Life
Educated at the Académie Royale des Beaux-ArtsAcadémie Royale des Beaux-Arts
The Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels is an art school, founded in 1711.The faculty and alumni of ARBA include some of the most famous names in Belgian painting, sculpture, and architecture: James Ensor, Rene Magritte, and Paul Delvaux...
in Brussels (1859-1868), van der Stappen's contribution to the Brussels Salon was "The Faun's Toilet" of 1869, and thereafter he began to produce work of a high and novel order in every class of sculpture, and soon, along with Paul de Vigne
Paul de Vigne
Paul de Vigne , Belgian sculptor, was born at Ghent. He was trained by his father, a statuary, and began by exhibiting his Fra Angeico da Fiesole at the Ghent Salon in 1868. In 1872 he exhibited at the Brussels Salon a marble statue, Heliotrope , and in 1875, at Brussels, Beatrix and Domenica...
, became recognized as the leader of the section of the new Belgian school of sculpture which infused models derived from Greek and Roman models and the art of the Italian Renaissance
Italian Renaissance
The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...
with naturalistic detail and fleeting action.
His best-known funeral monuments are those to "Alexandre Gendebien" (1874) and "Baron Coppens," at Sheel (1875). His statues include William the Silent
William the Silent
William I, Prince of Orange , also widely known as William the Silent , or simply William of Orange , was the main leader of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish that set off the Eighty Years' War and resulted in the formal independence of the United Provinces in 1648. He was born in the House of...
, set up at the Petit Sablon / Kleine Zavel Square, and two in the Brussels Museum, The Man with the Sword, and "The Sphinx". The bronze group Ompdrailles was acquired by the Belgian government (1892).
In 1893 the sculptor began his collaboration with Constantin Meunier
Constantin Meunier
Constantin Meunier , Belgian painter and sculptor, was born in Etterbeek, Brussels.His first exhibit was a plaster sketch, "The Garland," shown at the Brussels Salon in 1851. Soon afterwards, on the advice of the painter Charles de Groux, he abandoned the chisel for the brush...
for the elaborate decoration of the Botanical Garden of Brussels
Botanical Garden of Brussels
The Botanical Garden of Brussels stands on Rue Royale, near the Northern Quarter financial district in Brussels.Originally founded in 1826 and partly designed by architect Tilman-François Suys, the main orangery is composed of a central rotunda with a dome, and two side aisles with windows at the...
, coordinating many other sculptors for the production of some 52 sculptures for its grounds. The result of the connection may be seen in the group The Builders of Cities which is strongly imbued with the feeling and types of Meunier's sympathetic figures of workers.
Among his students were Helene Zelezny-Scholz, Rik Wouters
Rik Wouters
Hendrik Emil Wouters was a Belgian fauvist painter and sculptor. Wouters was educated at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.-External links:...
, Paul Du Bois
Paul Du Bois
Paul Du Bois was a Belgian sculptor and medalist, born in Aywaille, and died in Uccle.Du Bois was a student of Eugène Simonis and Charles van der Stappen...
, and Victor Rousseau
Victor Rousseau
Victor Rousseau was a Belgian sculptor and medalist.- Life :Rousseau was of Walloon heritage and descended from a line of stonemasons. He began carving stone at age 11, working at the site of the Law Courts of Brussels, designed by architect Joseph Poelaert...
, who would succeed him as director of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
The Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels is an art school, founded in 1711.The faculty and alumni of ARBA include some of the most famous names in Belgian painting, sculpture, and architecture: James Ensor, Rene Magritte, and Paul Delvaux...
.
Work
- decoration on the Palais des Postes, Brussels, 1872
- statues for the Alhambra Theatre, 1874
- caryatidCaryatidA caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support taking the place of a column or a pillar supporting an entablature on her head. The Greek term karyatides literally means "maidens of Karyai", an ancient town of Peloponnese...
es for the house of the architect Louis de Curte, 1874 - pediment sculpture Orchestration, one of the five pediment sculptures at the Royal Conservatory of BrusselsRoyal Conservatory of BrusselsThe Royal Conservatory of Brussels is a drama and music college in Brussels, Belgium. An academy for acting and the arts, it has been attended by many of the top actors and actresses in Belgium such as Josse De Pauw, Luk van Mello and Luk De Konink....
, for architect Jean-Pierre CluysenaerJean-Pierre CluysenaerJean-Pierre Cluysenaar was a Belgian architect. He was born in Kampen in Holland as a descendant of a Dutch family of architects and engineers. During the United Kingdom of the Netherlands his family settled in the southern Belgian provinces. Cluysenaar studied architecture at the Académie Royale...
, 1875 - noble bronze group, The Teaching of Art, on the facade of the Palace of Fine ArtsRoyal Museums of Fine Arts of BelgiumThe Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium , is one of the most famous museums in Belgium.-The museum:...
, Brussels, 1880 - St. Michael, for the Gothic Hall of the Hotel de Ville, Brussels, 1885
- the La Mort d'Ompdrailles monument, Brussels, depicting characters from novelist Leon CladelLeon CladelLéon Cladel , French novelist, was born at Montauban . The son of an artisan, he studied law at Toulouse and became a solicitor's clerk in Paris. Cladel made a reputation in a limited circle by his first book, Les Martyrs ridicules , a novel for which Charles Baudelaire, whose literary disciple...
, with base by architect Victor HortaVictor HortaVictor, Baron Horta was a Belgian architect and designer. John Julius Norwich described him as "undoubtedly the key European Art Nouveau architect." Indeed, Horta is one of the most important names in Art Nouveau architecture; the construction of his Hôtel Tassel in Brussels in 1892-3 means that...
, 1895-1897 - bronze monument to painter Theodore Baron, NamurNamur (city)Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia....
, 1903 - figures of Antwerp and LiègeLiègeLiège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
for the arches of the CinquantenaireCinquantenaireParc du Cinquantenaire or Jubelpark is a large public, urban park in the easternmost part of the European Quarter in Brussels, Belgium....
, circa 1905
Gallery
See Charles van der Stappen, by Camille LemonnierCamille Lemonnier
Antoine Louis Camille Lemonnier was a Belgian writer, poet and journalist. He was a member of the Symbolist La Jeune Belgique group, but his best known works are realist. His first work was Salon de Bruxelles , a collection of art criticism...
; Les Artistes belges contemporains, by E.L. de Taye; The Renaissance of Sculpture in Belgium, by OG Destrée (London, 1895).