BUSTE AUGUST VANDENBULCK | Kunst in de Stad

BUSTE AUGUST VANDENBULCK (WERNER HEYNDRICKX)

August Vandenbulck was born on 24-03-1885 in Sint-Niklaas, the only son of Lodewijk Vandenbulck and Henriette Verbruggen. He died in 1971 and was married to Martha Van Cotthem (1889-1969). They had 2 children Marcel (1921-2013) and Beatrice (1928-1943).

He got a secondary education degree in Latin and Greek in 1903 and began working at the Mechelen-Terneuzen Railway Company on Oct. 1. In 1905 he was appointed “office clerk at the town hall” of the city of Sint-Niklaas.

He was also a physics teacher at the Municipal School of Industry from 1908 to 1919.

During World War I, he was responsible for the distribution of sugar, syrup and artificial honey amongst the 14 municipalities of the left bank of the Scheldt.

In 1918 he was removed from office because of his activist views.

Between 1919 and 1941 he worked as a bookkeeper for a number of Wase firms. In 1925 he was managing-director at the N.V. Tissages Bruggeman. That partnership ended on 31-12-1938, due to disagreements with the president over August's Flemish-National views.

In 1941 he wanted to succeed city clerk Désiron, although he did not actually meet most of the criteria. He saw this as a form of rehabilitation. To achieve his goal, he enlisted the help of the local branch of the VNV, as well as national leaders such as August Borms, Gerard Romsée and Victor Leemans. He did not get the job, but did end up on the “Werbestelle”.

After the war, he was sentenced to 5 years for collaboration. At the end of 1948 he was released after 4 years of imprisonment, he was 63 at the time.

Up to a fairly old age, he was a tourguide with the VTB.

He had many contacts with local artists such as Sander Wijnants, Lea Steppe, Werner Heyndrickx and René De Lannoy.

In 2012, the family sold “De stadsdame” by Sander Wijnants and a self-portrait by René De Lannoy to the city of Sint-Niklaas. The portrait of Beatrice, who died young, by De Lannoy (1943) and the bronze bust of August by Werner Heyndrickx (1938) are still owned by the family.

With thanks to Gudrun Vandenbulck 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.