1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Vigne, Paul de

VIGNE, PAUL DE (1843–1901), Belgian sculptor, was born at Ghent. He was trained by his father, a statuary, and began by exhibiting his “Fra Angelico da Fiesole” at the Ghent Salon in 1868. In 1872 he exhibited at the Brussels Salon a marble statue, “Heliotrope” (Ghent Gallery), and in 1875, at Brussels, “Beatrix” and “Domenica.” He was employed by the government to execute caryatides for the conservatoire at Brussels. In 1876 at the Antwerp Salon he had busts of E. Hiel and W. Wilson, which were afterwards placed in the communal museum at Brussels. Until 1882 he lived in Paris, where he produced the marble statue “Immortality” (Brussels Gallery), and “The Crowning of Art,” a bronze group on the façade of the Palais des Beaux-Arts at Brussels. His monument to the popular heroes, Jean Breydel and Pierre de Coninck, was unveiled at Bruges in 1887. At his death he left unfinished his principal work, the Anspach monument, which was erected at Brussels under the direction of the architect Janlet with the co-operation of various sculptors. Among other notable works by De Vigne may be mentioned “Volumnia” (1875); “Poverella” (1878); a bronze bust of “Psyche” (Brussels Gallery), of which there is an ivory replica; the marble statue of Marnix de Ste Aldegonde in the Square du Sablon, Brussels; the Metdepenningen monument in the cemetery at Ghent; and the monument to Canon de Haerne at Courtrai.

See E. L. Detage, Les Artistes Belges contemporains (Brussels), and O. G. Destrée, The Renaissance of Sculpture in Belgium (London, 1895).