Laurent Delvaux

Samson

Laurent Delvaux (1696 – 24 February 1778) was a prolific Belgian sculptor.

Life

Delvaux was born in Ghent. In Brussels he was a student of Denis Plumier from Antwerp, he followed Plumier to London in 1719 and collaborated with him on the funerary monument of John Sheffield, duke of Buckingham (1721-22, London, Westminster Abbey). After an international career in London (1717-26) then Rome (1728-32) he settled in Nivelles, where he died. Like Antoine Cardon and Antoine Brice, he was a protégé of Charles de Lorraine, governor general of the Austrian Netherlands. He also worked for other European courts such as that of Portugal and for major abbeys like those at Afflighem, Floreffe and Villers. Many Belgian churches and museums in Brussels and Ghent have works by him.

Among Delvaux's students was the sculptor Gilles-Lambert Godecharle. Delvaux's grandson Édouard Delvaux (1806-1862) was a rural painter and a student of Henri Van Assche (1774-1841).

Bibliography

• Alain Jacobs, Laurent Delvaux, Gand, 1696 - Nivelles, 1778, Paris, Athena, 1999