BUSTE HENRI DE LOVINFOSSE

BUSTE HENRI DE LOVINFOSSE (WERNER HEYNDRICKX)

BEELD 41 (E)

(Liege 1897 - 1977).   Married to Fernande Roos, daughter of Alexis Roos. They had three children.

Henri de Lovinfosse is referred to as “nijveraar,” which in this region means he was a manufacturer. In 1925, he founded the Manta company (Spanish for “blanket”) in Opwijk. He moved the headquarters to Waasmunster in 1930 and expanded the products to include a top level blanket: 'Sole Mio'.

By 1954, Manta employed 1,200 workers and clerks and delivered goods to 106 countries across the five continents. There was a social and medical service and a library for staff members. At weddings, the couple received a “Sole Mio” as a gift.  The firm sponsored the FC Sparta soccer club and the "Koninklijke Harmonie Sint-Cecilia".

After the war, Henri became president of the churchwardens of Waasmunster and in 1952 donated two new bells, which still ring today. The Manta finally had to close in 1987.

The de Lovinfosse family, with Henri in the lead, contributed much to the prosperity of the people of Waasmunster and the immediate area.

This brief description shows that Henri de Lovinfosse was a culturally and socially engaged man.

With thanks to the "Heemkundige Kring Waasmunster" for the info

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