- Dominique Vautier
Extract
(b Mechelen, Sept 18, 1756; d Antwerp, Jan 24, 1830).
Flemish sculptor. His work was essentially part of the late Flemish Baroque tradition; yet he was aware of the emerging Neo-classical movement, as is revealed by certain details in his religious works and, above all, by the spirit of his secular commissions. He was a pupil first of the painter Guillaume Herryns and then of the sculptor Pierre Valckx. In 1784 van Geel was appointed an assistant teacher at the academy of art in Mechelen and subsequently devoted himself consistently to teaching, first in Mechelen and then at the Académie in Antwerp. Among his pupils were Jean-Baptiste de Bay (1802–62), Guillaume Geefs, Lodewijk Royer, Joseph Tuerlinckx (1809–73) and his own son Jan Lodewijk van Geel (b Mechelen, 28 Sept 1787; d Brussels, 10 April 1852), also a sculptor. Jan Frans’s first important commission was for statues (1780–90) of St James, St Andrew...
