BUSTE FRANCOIS SCHOETERS

BUSTE FRANCOIS SCHOETERS (WERNER HEYNDRICKX)

(Sint-Niklaas March 12, 1891 - Hamme July 24, 1961)

Around the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, the Belgian Gazette mentions “Schoeters Frères et Soeurs".  Bertha Schoeters, co-founder of the company for trade and textile merchandise, would have signed the deed with a cross because she was illiterate. However, this first company seemed unviable.

In 1922, François and Constant Schoeters founded a new company together with G. Derre.  Soon Derre disappeared from the board.  François and Constant continued. In 1930 a definitive form of company was founded under the name: 'S.A. Retorderie François Schoeters'.  The business flourished, and thanks to the efforts of Lucien Neirinckx and good administrative staff, the business continued even during WWII.

However, when Frans Schoeters' involvement in the business became diluted and a virtual bankruptcy was imminent, Neirinckx took over the entire business.  As manager he was able to make the company flourish again so that it grew into four companies:'Retorderie Fr. Schoeters', 'Ververij Schoeters', 'Beljacman' and 'Filterors'.

In 1966 Lucien Neirinckx, who was childless, sought a potential buyer.  He sold the company to his neighbour, Albert Bruggeman, who obtained a fully vertically integrated textile company: starting from the raw materials and semi-finished products (Schoeters) to the weaving of the yarns into upholstery fabrics and carpets (nv. Tissages Bruggeman). Then the son, Dany Bruggeman, managed the entire textile business until 2009.

With thanks to Dany Bruggeman for the information

HEYNDRICKX Werner (1909-1986)

Werner Heyndrickx was a sculptor of portraits and figures. His father, Jozef Heyndrickx, was a stonemason. Education at the academies of Sint-Niklaas and Antwerp and at the National Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp (studio of E. Wijnants). Teacher of sculpture at the Municipal Academy of Fine Arts in Sint-Niklaas and the Higher Institute in Antwerp

His workshop was situated near the Tereken cemetery in Sint-Niklaas. For bronze casting he always worked with Achiel Vindevogel in Zwijnaarde. He attached major attention to the patina of a statue.

Particularly in Werner Heyndrickx's early works one can still clearly sense the influence of his teachers Arthur Dupon and especially Ernest Wijnants: in the monumentality and in the  reduction of an image to a number of stylized surfaces . This rather synthesizing style is recognisable in the sculptures of the apostles he made for the church of ‘Kristus Koning’ in Sint-Niklaas. Even though heads, hands and feet have been executed with precision and detail, the vertical folds are stylised. The same approach can be seen in the sculptures ‘Contemplatie’ and ‘Familie’.

Werner Heyndrickx’s portraits exhale sharp observation. They are the result of a relentless search for an accurate resemblance and for the subject’s character.

He took part in many exhibitions in Belgium and abroad: Antwerp, Ghent, Liège, Namur, Paris, Prague and Bratislava. Prizes : the 'Godecharle Prize', the 'Van Lerius Prize', the 'Doutrolon de Try Prize' and the 'Prize of the Province of East Flanders for Sculpture'.

Kunst in de Stad displays some fifteen works by this sculptor.

Kunst in de Stad, april 24^th 2010