François Dieussart (also Frans;

Armentières Armentières (; , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Nord (French department), Nord department in the Hauts-de-France region in northern France. It is part of the Métropole Européenne de Lille. The motto of the town is ''Pauvre mais fi� ...

, c. 1600 –

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, 1661) was a Walloon sculptor who worked for court patrons in England, the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

and northern Europe, producing portrait busts in the Italianate manner.

Life and work

Dieussart was likely an active sculptor by the time he arrived in

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

in his early twenties. He appears in an entry from 1622 at the charitable organisation run at the Church of St. Julian of the Flemings and had become its director by 1630. He was invited to England by the

Earl of Arundel Earl of Arundel is a title of nobility in England, and one of the oldest extant in the English peerage. It is currently held by the Duke of Norfolk, and it is used (along with the earldom of Surrey) by his heir apparent as a courtesy title ...

in 1636, and made a reputation there with the construction of a magnificent mechanical

monstrance A monstrance, also known as an ostensorium (or an ostensory), is a vessel used in Roman Catholic, Old Catholic, High Church Lutheran and Anglican churches for the display on an altar of some object of piety, such as the consecrated Eucharisti ...

forty feet (12.2 metres) high for Queen Henrietta Maria's chapel at

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

. His bust of

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. Charles was born ...

, probably commissioned by Arundel, is at

Arundel Castle Arundel Castle is a restored and remodelled medieval castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England. It was established by Roger de Montgomery in the 11th century. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War and then restored in the 18th and earl ...

, Another portrait bust of Charles I in

Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a List of British royal residences, royal residence at Windsor, Berkshire, Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, about west of central London. It is strongly associated with the Kingdom of England, English and succee ...

, possibly by Thomas Adye or

Francis Bird Francis Bird (1667–1731) was one of the leading English sculptors of his time. He is mainly remembered for sculptures in Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral. He carved a tomb for the dramatist William Congreve in Westminster Abbey and s ...

(c. 1737–44) is speculatively thought to be based on a now lost bust by Dieussart. He is mentioned in a poem by

Cornelis de Bie Cornelis de Bie (10 February 1627 – ) was a Flemish '' rederijker'', poet, jurist and minor politician from Lier. He is the author of about 64 works, mostly comedies. He is known internationally today for his biographical sketches of Flemish ...

in his book

Het Gulden Cabinet or ''The Golden Cabinet of the Noble Liberal Art of Painting'' is a book by the 17th-century Flemish notary and ''Chamber of rhetoric, rederijker'' Cornelis de Bie. It was published in Antwerp. Written in the Dutch language, it contains artist ...

as being court sculptor for the Stuarts in England. A brief biographical sketch for Dieussart was published in the early art dictionary Teutsche Academie by Joachim von Sandrart. According to the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

he learned his trade in Rome from François Duquesnoy.François Dieussart
in the

Literature

* Frits Scholten, ''François Dieussart,

Constantijn Huygens Sir Constantijn Huygens, Lord of Zuilichem ( , , ; 4 September 159628 March 1687), was a Dutch Golden Age poet and composer. He was also secretary to two Princes of Orange: Frederick Henry and William II, and the father of the scientist C ...

, and the Classical Ideal in Funerary Sculpture'', Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 25, No. 4. (1997), pp. 303–328. *

Notes and references

External links

* 17th-century sculptors People from Armentières Baroque sculptors Court sculptors 1661 deaths Artists from the Spanish Netherlands Male sculptors Year of birth unknown Walloon people Year of birth uncertain Expatriates in the Kingdom of England {{Belgium-sculptor-stub