Laurent Delvaux (1696, in

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 ...

– 24 February 1778, in

Nivelles Nivelles (; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the former municipalities of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux. The Nivelles arrondissement ...

) was a Flemish sculptor. After a successful international career that brought him to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, he returned to the Austrian Netherlands where he was a sculptor to the court. Delvaux was a transitional figure between the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

and

Neo-classicism Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiq ...

Life

Training

Delvaux probably trained in his native

under the local sculptor J. B. van Helderberghe. At the age of 18 he went to

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 ...

to study under Pierre-Denis Plumier from

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 ...

and attended the local drawing academy.Laurent Delvaux
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

London

He went to London in 1717 where he collaborated with his compatriot

Peter Scheemakers Peter Scheemakers or Pieter Scheemaeckers II or the Younger (10 January 1691 – 12 September 1781) was a Southern Netherlands, Flemish sculptor who worked for most of his life in London. His public and church sculptures in a classicism, classici ...

. When they were joined by Plumier in 1721 they worked together on a number of marble funerary monuments, including that of John Sheffield, duke of Buckingham (1721–22,

Westminster Abbey Westminster Abbey, formally titled the Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster, is an Anglican church in the City of Westminster, London, England. Since 1066, it has been the location of the coronations of 40 English and British m ...

). After Plumier died soon after his arrival in 1721, Delvaux and Scheemakers are believed to have collaborated with Francis Bird on the marble monument to John Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, also in Westminster Abbey.Helena Bussers. "Delvaux, Laurent." However, this information appears to be incorrect. Specify!
Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 29 April 2014 Scheemakers and Delvaux entered into a formal partnership and set up a workshop in Millbank, Westminster, in 1723. Their workshop produced many sober classical monuments and garden statuary after the Antique. The partners sold their stock in the partnership and travelled to Rome in 1728.Helena Bussers and Ingrid Roscoe. "Scheemakers."
Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 27 March 2014

Rome

In Rome acobs 1999, pp. 28–32, 246-268 Delvaux studied the work of compatriots Giambologna and François Duquesnoy as well as Italian sculpture of the 17th century and of his contemporaries. He keenly admired the sculpture of Classical antiquity and took the opportunity to copy newly discovered pieces. While in Rome, John Russell, 4th Duke of Bedford, commissioned a number of works inspired by antique examples, most notably '' Caunus and Byblis''. This group is a free version of a sculpture by Pierre Le Gros the Younger of some 20 or so years earlier where Le Gros had deliberately added heads, hands and legs to a fragmented antique group of '' Amor and Psyche'' in such a way that it turned the love story on its head and instead of Amor showed Caunus as he vehemently defends himself against the sexual advances of his sister.Gerhard Bissell, ''Haud dubiè Amoris & Psyches imagines fuerunt statuæ istæ'', in: Max Kunze, Axel Rügler (ed.), ''Wiedererstandene Antike. Ergänzungen antiker Kunstwerke seit der Renaissance'' (Cyriacus. Studien zur Rezeption der Antike, Band 1), München 2003, pp. 73-80.

Return to the Austrian Netherlands

Upon his return to the Austrian Netherlands in 1733 ee Jacobs 1999, passim he became a court sculptor. He also received many religious commissions including the oak group of the Conversion of St Paul dated 1736 (now in the Collegiate Church of St Gertrude in Nivelles). The same church also holds a series of oak statues of the Apostles sculpted by Delvaux in 1743–4. He also made a marble funerary monument for the Van der Noot family in 1746– for the Carmelite Church in Brussels and which is now in the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the S ...

. After Prince Charles de Lorraine arrived in Brussels as the governor general of the

Austrian Netherlands The Austrian Netherlands was the territory of the Burgundian Circle of the Holy Roman Empire between 1714 and 1797. The period began with the acquisition by the Austrian Habsburg monarchy of the former Spanish Netherlands under the Treaty of Ras ...

in 1741, Delvaux received many commissions for the decoration of the governor general's residences in Brussels,

Tervuren Tervuren (; ) is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren proper, Vossem and Moorsel. On 1 January 2006, Tervuren had a total population o ...

(near Brussels) and Mariemont, Belgium in Hainaut acobs 1999 For the palace in Brussels, which survives partially, he created allegorical reliefs for the façade and the staircase and free-standing statues, including a marble Hercules at the foot of the stairs. Delvaux also worked for other European courts such as that of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and for major abbeys like those at Afflighem, Floreffe and Villers. In 1734 he settled in Nivelles. In addition to monumental work, Delvaux created many excellent models in terracotta. Many Belgian churches and museums in Brussels, Nivelles and Ghent hold works by him.

Pupils

Among Delvaux's students were the sculptors

Gilles-Lambert Godecharle Gilles-Lambert Godecharle (2 December 1750 in Brussels − 24 February 1835 in Brussels) was a Belgian sculptor, a pupil of Laurent Delvaux, "the only sculptor of international repute in Delvaux's retinue", who became one of two outstanding repr ...

, Pierre-François Le Roy, Laurent Joseph Tamine, Adrien-Joseph Anrion and

Joseph Wilton Joseph Wilton (16 July 1722 – 25 November 1803) was an English sculptor. He was one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768, and the academy's third keeper. His works are particularly numerous memorialising the famous Britons ...

. Delvaux's grandson Édouard Delvaux (1806-1862) was a rural painter and a student of Henri Van Assche (1774-1841).

References

Bibliography

* Alain Jacobs, ''Laurent Delvaux, Gand, 1696 - Nivelles, 1778'', Paris, Athena, 1999 *Alain Jacobs, Addenda au catalogue raisonné de Laurent Delvaux, Annales Société royale d'Archéologie d'Histoire et de Folklore de Nivelles, XXXIII, 2016, pp. 17–59. {{DEFAULTSORT:Delvaux 1696 births 1778 deaths 18th-century Flemish sculptors Flemish sculptors (before 1830) Court sculptors Artists from Ghent Expatriates in the Kingdom of Great Britain Expatriates from the Holy Roman Empire