Joseph Geefs

Joseph Geefs

Joseph Germain Geefs , also Jozef Geefs (born December 23, 1808 in Antwerp , † October 9, 1885 in Brussels ) was a Belgian sculptor .

Life

Grave of Joseph Geefs and his son Gustave Georges

Joseph was the second son of the baker Joannes Geefs (April 25, 1779 - December 3, 1848) and Joanna Theresia Verbruggen (November 8, 1775 - January 14, 1822). His older brother Guillaume (Wilhelm) Geefs (September 10, 1805 - January 19, 1883), who is considered the most important representative of the family, and his younger brother Aloys Geefs (1817 - August 31, 1841) were also sculptors. Guillaume Geefs was married to the painter Fanny Geefs (May 2, 1807 - January 23, 1883 in Schaerbeek ).

From the father's second marriage to Dymphna Vermeulen (July 24, 1788 - June 22, 1843) there were four sons, all of whom were also sculptors:

• Jean Geefs (April 24, 1825 - May 9, 1860)
• Theodore Geefs, (1827-1867)
• Charles Geefs (January 1, 1829 - April 5, 1911)
• Alexandre Geefs (January 1, 1829-1866)

Joseph Geefs and his wife Adèle Sylvie Roelandt (November 23, 1823 in Ghent , died March 5, 1911 in Antwerp), who was the daughter of the architect Lodewijk Roelandt, had two sons:

• Gustave Georges (Joris) Theodore Geefs (November 20, 1850 - December 4, 1933) was also a sculptor.
• Eugene Geefs, (January 6, 1854 - March 7, 1925) was an architect.

Joseph Geefs studied at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten ( Royal Academy of Fine Arts ) in Antwerp and at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris . In 1836 he won the Prix ​​de Rome , in 1841 he became a lecturer in sculpture and anatomy at the Academy in Antwerp. His students include a. Bart van Hove, Joseph Ducaju and Jef Lambeaux .

From 1880 to 1885 he was director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

Geefs died in Brussels at the age of 76 and was buried in Berchem (Antwerp) . He is in the same grave as his wife Adèle Sylvie and their son Gustave Georges and his wife Adela Maria Michiels (1855-1934). The grave monument was designed by Joseph's other son, Eugene.

Honors

• Order of Leopold (Belgium)
• House Order of the White Falcon
• Order of the Oak Crown
• Order of the Zähringer Lion
• Order of Our Lady
• Order of Leopold II , officer (1859).

Work

The angel of evil

The Angel of Evil in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels

In 1837 Joseph Geefs was commissioned to make a Lucifer for the pulpit of St. Paul's Cathedral in Liège . The theme was the triumph of religion over the genius of evil. The result, the Angel of Evil ( L'Ange du Mal, Le Génie du Mal ), was completed in 1842 and erected the following year. Despite the unmistakable quality of the work, the church leadership did not agree (“This devil is too sublime”) with the result. Satan has been portrayed as a young Adonis whose tragic beauty turned out to be a dangerous fascination for churchgoers. The folded bat wings appear to form a mandorla instead of being dreaded, and they accentuate the seductive body. The figure's downward gaze underscores the impression. Bishop Cornelis Richard Anton van Bommel had the marble statue removed and replaced with a new version by Joseph's brother Guillaume Geefs. This corresponded more to the general expectations and is less humanizing and without ambiguity regarding the divine punishment: a dark frown and a tear that better covers nudity, the satanic attributes (horns, an apple with bite marks, the toenails are narrow and elongated like claws) more clear. The eyes are no longer focused on his own body and he is chained. The original angel was given to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels (acquired in 1864). It is considered a high point in romantic sculpture. Joseph Geefs also made another copy of the sculpture "Angel of Evil". This was commissioned by Prince Carl Bernhard von Sachsen-Weimar-Eisenach (May 30, 1792 in Weimar - July 31, 1862 in Liebenstein ). For a long time it stood in different rooms of the Weimar residential palace . Today it is in the depot of the Klassik Stiftung Weimar . The figure is signed and dated: "Josef Geefs d'Anvers 1842".

Works for tombs

Joseph Geefs created an angel relief for the grave of the architect Louis Van Overstraeten (May 17, 1818 in Leuven - July 24, 1849 in Ghent). Louis Van Overstraeten was married to Mathilde Roelandt and was thus also a son-in-law of Lodewijk Roelandt. The grave of Louis Van Overstraeten in Ghent is in the Campo Santo cemetery in Sint-Amandsberg.

Other works (selection)

• The Angel of Evil , Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels (see above)
• Statue of Andreas Vesalius (1846, unveiled 1847) in Brussels
• the two figures of freedom of education and freedom of the press at the foot of the congress column in Brussels
• Stations of the Cross (1867) and Figures (1867–1871) in St. Peter and Paul Church in Mechelen
• Statue of Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp (1867) in front of the WTC in Rotterdam
• Hunter with prey in Antwerp Zoo (1865)
• an Indian on a horse attacked by two jaguars for the Antwerp Zoo (1869)
• Equestrian statue of King Leopold I (1872) on Leopold Square in Antwerp
• Count Adolf Monument (1873) based on a design by Johannes Hinderikus Egenberger in Heiligerlee (Provincialeweg) to commemorate the Battle of Heiligerlee
• Portrait medallion of Wilhelm II of the Netherlands on the obelisk in Tilburg (1874)
• fourteen bas-reliefs for the Way of the Cross in St. Willibrord in Berchem (1850)
• for the Sint-Jacobskerk in Antwerp seven (of fourteen) stations of suffering (1855) (I, II, IV, VIII, IX, XII, XIII), the others created by PJ De Cuyper
• a statue of Mary in St. Mary's Church in Brussels (1865)
• The young fisherman and the siren ("Jeune pecheur qui se noie attiré par la sirène") (1874), two versions, one in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp , the other privately owned
• Bust of Florent van Ertborn (1849), Mayor of Antwerp (April 4, 1784 in Antwerp - August 20, 1840 in The Hague ), Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp
• Bust of Nicaise de Keyser (1881), Belgian history and portrait painter (August 26, 1813 in Santvliet near Antwerp - July 17, 1887 ibid), Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp
• Bust of Frans-Jozef Stoop (1885), architect, Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp
• For the facade of the town hall in Bruges he created 24 statues of the Counts and Countesses of Flanders
• for the facade of the Sint-Vincentiusziekenhuis in Antwerp he created white stone statues of the Holy Family (center), Saint Joachim (left) and Saint Anne (right),

Picture gallery

• 

  Indian on horseback attacked by two jaguars (1869)

• 

  Hunter with his Prey (1865)

• 

  Freedom of the press at the foot of the congress column in Brussels

literature

• Felix Stappaerts: La colonne du Congrès à Bruxelles: notice historique et descriptive du monument. Verlag van Buggenhout, Gent 1860 ( books.google.de ).

Web links

Commons : Joseph Geefs  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Data on Joseph Geefs
• Joseph Germain Geefs , Mapping the Practice and Profession of Sculpture in Britain and Ireland 1851–1951, University of Glasgow History of Art and HATII, online database 2011

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Biography of Guillaume Geefs at Web Gallery of Art.
2. ↑ Description of the tombs by Joseph Geefs , in the Archiev voor nationale Bewegungsingen.
3. ↑ Grave of Joseph Geefs ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ Campo Santo: op zoek naar beroemde beentjes .
5. ↑ Félix Stappaerts: La colonne du Congrès à Bruxelles: notice historique et du descriptive monument . J. Van Buggenhoudt, Gent 1860, p. 8 ( books.google.de ).
6. ↑ Special congratulations to the members of Antwerp Zoo; 65 years of history in pictures (1850-1914) .
7. ↑ Berchem, Sint-Willibrorduskerk (PDF), detailed description by Rudi Mannaerts and Jan Vanes, 2017. P. 27.
8. ↑ in the Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp.
9. ↑ in the Lempertz catalog.
10. ↑ Geefs, Joseph . In: Ulrich Thieme (Hrsg.): General Lexicon of Fine Artists from Antiquity to the Present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 13 : Gaab-Gibus . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1920, p. 321 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
11. ↑ Inventory Vlaanderen .
12. ↑ Inventory Vlaanderen .