9 - Jan Frans (or Jean-François) VAN GEEL (Mechelen 1756–Antwerp 1830)

Jan Frans (or Jean-François) VAN GEEL (Mechelen 1756–Antwerp 1830) Bust of Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul. Plaster. Circa 1799–1805. H. 71 cm. Provenance French private collection. History Our bust is similar to a piece donated to the Mechelen Museum in 1862 by Hilaire Du Trieu de Terdonck (1814–1867) and created by the sculptor Jean-François Van Geel (ill. 1), also known by his Flemish name, Jan Frans Van Geel. A leading figure in sculpture in the Southern Netherlands at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, he contributed to the transition from the legacy of Flemish Baroque to new aesthetic models inspired by antiquity. Born in Mechelen, Van Geel received his early training from the painter Willem Jacob Herreyns (1743–1827), before studying sculpture under Pieter Valckx (1734–1785). A brilliant student at the Mechelen Academy of Drawing, where he won several first prizes, he was appointed assistant professor there in 1784 and succeeded Herreyns as head of the institution in 1797. A member of the Academy’s board of directors from 1807 onward, he became the head of the sculpture department at the Antwerp Academy in 1817. That same year, he was appointed court sculptor to François-Antoine de Méan de Beaurieux (1756–1831), Archbishop of Mechelen. Throughout his career, Van Geel received major public and religious commissions. Among his earliest works were the statues of Saints James the Greater, Andrew, and Thomas, intended for the Church of Our Lady Beyond the Dyle in Mechelen. He also worked in Antwerp, where he collaborated with Jan Baptist Van Hool (1769–1837) on the design of the pulpit at St. Andrew’s Church, for which he created the sculptural group *The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew* (1821). Van Geel regularly participated in the Salons of Ghent, Brussels, and Antwerp; in 1813, he exhibited, among other works, the terracotta groups *Mars and Venus* and *Bacchus*, which had already been presented at the Ghent Salon in 1812. He then presented new works at the Antwerp Salons of 1816 and 1822, before exhibiting, in 1825, the models for the statues of Saint Jerome and Saint Ambrose intended for Saint James Church. A renowned teacher, he trained several of the leading Belgian sculptors of the 19th century, including Jean-Baptiste De Bay (1779–1863), Guillaume Geefs (1805–1883), Jean-Baptiste De Cuyper (1807–1852), Charles Geerts (1807–1855), and his son Jean-Louis Van Geel (1787–1852). Today, his sculptures and drawings are housed in several prestigious Belgian institutions, notably the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp), the Plantin-Moretus Museum in Antwerp, and the Hof van Busleyden Museum in Mechelen. Our bust, with its particularly rare subject matter, is part of the phenomenon of the representation and dissemination of the image of Bonaparte, First Consul, in Belgium and among Belgian artists. In 1795, following the French victory at Fleurus over Austrian troops, the nine departments that today correspond to Belgium were gradually incorporated into France, prior to their official annexation in October of that same year. Their incorporation was subsequently confirmed by the Treaties of Campo Formio (1797) and Lunéville (1801). These former Austrian Netherlands were then the focus of special attention in order to consolidate their integration into French territory. This policy was carried out in particular through the arts, which were used as a tool to represent and disseminate the new regime. The prefectures of Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, and Liège each received a portrait of the First Consul, symbolically marking their new allegiance to France. Belgian artists themselves then embraced this new iconography and developed a body of work that blended the legacy of the Flemish tradition with influences from the Neoclassical movement. A consular portrait of Bonaparte by the Belgian artist Pieter Van Huffel (1769–1844) thus attests to the dissemination of the image of the new head of state through local artistic circles. During the summer of 1803 (Year XI), Bonaparte undertook a major official and military tour of the Belgian departments, notably visiting Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, Brussels, and Liège, accompanied by his wife Josephine. The consular carriage left Antwerp on July 21 and traveled to Mechelen to pay his respects to Archbishop de Roquelaure, whom Napoleon held in high esteem. The authorities of Mechelen then paid their respects to him and presented a petition in favor of a project to link the Scheldt and the Rhine via the Meuse. It was probably during this visit to the P