Julien Dillens (8 June 1849 – 24 December 1904) was a Belgian sculptor born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

, the son of the painter Hendrick Joseph Dillens.

Biography

Dillens studied under

Eugène Simonis Louis-Eugène Simonis (; 11 July 1810, in Liège – 11 July 1893, in Koekelberg) was a Belgian sculptor. Career Simonis studied under François-Joseph Dewandre at the Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Liège and at the age of nineteen went to ...

at the

Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts The Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Brussels ( ''(ArBA-EsA)''; ) is an art school in Brussels, Belgium, founded in 1711. Starting from modest beginnings in a single room in Brussels Town Hall, Brussels' Town Hall, it has since 1876 been operat ...

. In 1877 he received the

Prix de Rome The Prix de Rome () or Grand Prix de Rome was a French scholarship for arts students, initially for painters and sculptors, that was established in 1663 during the reign of Louis XIV of France. Winners were awarded a bursary that allowed them t ...

for ''A Gaulish Chief taken Prisoner by the Romans''. At Brussels, in 1881, he executed the groups entitled ''Justice'' and ''Herkenbald, the Brussels Brutus''. For the pediment of the orphanage at Uccle, Figure Kneeling (Brussels Gallery), and the statue of the lawyer Hippolyte Metdepenningen in front of the Palais de Justice at

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

, he was awarded the medal of honor in 1889 at the

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

Universal Exhibition, where, in 1900, his ''Two Statues of the Anspach Monument'' gained him a similar distinction. For the town of Brussels he executed ''The Four Continents'' (Maison du Renard, Grand, Place), The Lansquenets crowning the lucarnes of the Maison de Roi, and the Monument at

Everard 't Serclaes Everard t'Serclaes, Lord of Kruikenburg (c. 1320 – 31 March 1388) was a citizen of Brussels who was made famous by his recovery of the city from the Flemings. His brother, Jean, was bishop of Cambrai. After the death of John III of Braban ...

under the arcades of the Maison de l'Etoile, and, for the Belgian government, Flemish Art, German Art, Classic Art and Art applied to Industry (all in the Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels), ''The Laurel'' at the

Botanical Garden of Brussels The Botanical Garden of Brussels (, ; , ) is a former botanical garden in Brussels, Belgium. It was created in 1826 and stood on the Rue Royale, Brussels, Rue Royale/Koningsstraat in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode, near Brussels' Northern Quarter, Bruss ...

, and the statue of

Bernard van Orley Bernard van Orley (between 1487 and 1491 – 6 January 1541), also called Barend or Barent van Orley, Bernaert van Orley or Barend van Brussel, was a versatile Flemish artist and representative of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, who w ...

( Petit Sablon Square, Brussels). Additional works produced by Dillens include ''An Enigma'' (1876), the

bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals (such as phosphorus) or metalloid ...

busts of Rogier de la Pasture and P. P. Rubens (1879), ''Etruria'' (1880), ''The Painter Leon Frederic'' (1888), Madame Léon Herbo, Hermes, a scheme of decoration for the ogival façade of the hotel de ville at Ghent (1893), The Genius of the Funeral Monument of the Moselli Family, The Silence of Death (for the entrance of the cemetery of St Gilles), two

caryatid A 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 t ...

s for the town hall of St Gilles, presentation

plaquette A plaquette (; "small plaque") is a small low relief sculpture in bronze or other materials. These were popular in the Italian Renaissance and later. They may be commemorative, but especially in the Renaissance and Mannerist periods were often ...

to Dr Heger, medals of MM. Godefroid and Vanderkindere and of The Three Burgomasters of Brussels, and the ivories Allegretto, Minerva and the Jamaer Memorial. Dillens died in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

on 24 December 1904.

Selected works

File:Le laurier.JPG, ''Le Laurier'',

File:Dillens Bruxelles et Magistrature Communale2.JPG, ''Magistrature Communale'', Anspach Fountain, Brussels File:Dillens la Source.JPG, ''La Source'',

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode Saint-Josse-ten-Noode ( French, ) or Sint-Joost-ten-Node ( Dutch, ), often simply called Saint-Josse in French or Sint-Joost in Dutch, is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the north-eastern part o ...

, Square Armand Steurs File:Dillens Bruxelles et Magistrature Communale.JPG, ''Bruxelles'', Anspach Fountain File:The Porters by Julien Dillens (1849-1904), created for the 1897 Colonial Exhibition ant Tervuren - Royal Museum for Central Africa - DSC06727.JPG, ''The Porters'',

Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) (; ; ), communicating under the name AfricaMuseum since 2018, is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside Brussels. It was originally b ...

File:Kerkhof Sint-Gillis 07.jpg, ''The Silence of the Tomb'', Cemetery of Saint-Gilles

References

* * Edmond Marchal, "Notice sur Julien Henri Dillens", Annuaire de l'Académie royale de Belgique, t. 78, 1912, pp. 177–205
Consulter la notice
* Georges-Marie Matthys, "Julien Henri Dillens", Biographie nationale, t. XLIII, col. 334
Consulter la notice
* Georges-Marie Matthys, ''Julien Dillens, sculpteur'', Mémoires de la Classe des Beaux-Arts, Coll. in-8°, Série 2, t. VIII, Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts de Belgique, 1955, 164 p.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dillens, Julien 19th-century Belgian sculptors 20th-century Belgian sculptors Belgian male sculptors Belgian architectural sculptors 1849 births 1904 deaths Prix de Rome (Belgium) winners