GEEL, Jan Frans van
Flemish sculptor. He was taught by Willem Jacob Herreyns and, later on, Pieter Valckx. In 1784 he became a faculty member of the Mechelen Academy; later on, he would teach at the Antwerp Academy as well. His students included, among others, Willem Geefs, Louis Royer and Joseph Tuerlinckx. Stylistically, van Geel continued the late Flemish Baroque tradition, although he was not wholly unaware of the upcoming Neoclassicist movement.
His most important works include the pulpit of the Church of St Andrew in Antwerp, a series of statues of saints for the Church of St Jacob in Antwerp and a series of terracotta bozzetti, religious as well as mythological. For many of his architectural and sculptural projects, van Geel produced sketches and drawings, several of which are kept in the Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp.
