STAPPEN, Charles van der
Belgian sculptor. He was a student at the Academy in Brussels from 1859 to 1868, spending 1864 in Paris, where he worked in a sculptor’s studio while attending the École des Beaux-Arts. From 1877 to 1879, he lived in Rome, where he worked out the cire perdue technique. After his return, he established the Atelier Libre in Brussels, which soon became a favourite rendezvous for artists.
In the 1890s, van der Stappen devoted himself to applied art and was a co-founder of L’Art, a movement for “Art in industry”. He exhibited at numerous exhibitions, including those of Les Vingt, the Salon de la Libre Esthètique and the Viennese Secession.
His principal works include Teaching of Art (1887), a bronze group at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and another on the main steps of the City Hall in Brussels.
In the late 1880s, Van der Stappen’s work took a new direction, noted by contemporary critics, as he adopted the populist themes then in vogue. He responded to the influence of his friends Auguste Rodin and Constantin Meunier. He took his subjects from the life of the poor and the workers, and the result was informed by social preoccupations, as in the Death of Ompdrailles (1892), in the Avenue Louise, Brussels, an epic group inspired by a novel by the French writer Léon Cladel (1834-1892). The influence of Rodin is discernible in this piece.
