BUSTE ROMAIN DE VIDTS

cycle route, sculptures, walk-green route

BUSTE ROMAIN DE VIDTS (WERNER HEYNDRICKX)

The romantic city park boasts a large variety of plants and trees, originating from all continents. Close to the park exit into the Parklaan, along one of the paths, is a classical bust, the ‘portrait of Romain De Vidts’, mayor of Sint-Niklaas from 1947 to 1962. The sculpture was commissioned by the city council and executed by fellow townsman Werner Heyndrickx.

Under mayor Romain De Vidts’ administration access to the city centre was opened by constructing the Parklaan. At the same time the city acquired the historic Walburg Castle and its surrounding park, that was later renamed as ‘Romain De Vidtspark’.

The artist Werner Heyndrickx is a master of realistic portraiture. He succeeds in perfectly depicting his subject’s character.

Werner Heyndrickx is demanding in the execution of his work. Each detail has its value and its precise function in the whole. Because of this striving for perfection he always worked with the same bronze caster. He attached great importance to the patina of his sculptures.

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.