The Van Herck collection. 17th and 18th century terracottas

The master himself The Bonnefantenmuseum often focuses on the material aspects of art. How was it made? How was it kept? What was the function of the object? After all, works of art are moslty presented in the museum out of context, whereas they used to play a completely different role in living rooms, for instance, or in churches or private collections.

This is seen at its strongest in the case of art works that were never actually intended as an art work, but as a sketch, a preparation or merely a tool. The terracottas (red unglazed ceramic) in this exhibition are an example of this. They were working capital or a semi-finished product. Often, however, the artist himself or those around him did see that these objects, too, represented great artistic value. And maybe even greater than the end product, as sketches reveal the hand of the master himself by definition.

Charles Van Herck The exhibition Terracottas from the 17th and 18th century contains over 50 sculptures from the collection of the Antwerp citizen Charles Van Herck (1884–1955). The terracottas form a coherent sub-collection of his substantial total collection, which is strongly linked to his roots. His grandfather Jan Frans Van Herck and his father Eugène were antique dealers, and the basis of Charles’ collection was formed by their legacies. After graduating as an architect from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, in 1902, Charles was also to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and father. Under the company name Firma Eugène Van Herck en Zonen and alongside his father and his brother Louis he dealt in art works of various types and from various periods of art history. He also acted as an expert at auctions, regularly organised by the company itself, and made inventories of estates, thereby gaining great expertise. When his father died in 1941, followed by his brother the following year, Charles became a private dealer for a short while, before founding the new company Charles Van Herck en Zoon in his hometown in 1947. This successful art dealer held monthly auctions of art works, antiquities and books, as well as compiling catalogues.

The Charles Van Herck collection includes hundreds of preparatory drawings and studies by sculptors, the larger part of which was kept in folders, with some being framed and hung in the hall and stairwell of his home. He augmented the collection of drawings he had acquired through inheritance with his own purchases. The terracotta statues that were displayed in various rooms were collected by Van Herck himself over the course of 46 years. Only a few of them were acquired through inheritance or as a gift. The connoisseur’s keen eye allowed him to put together a considerable collection of masters like Artus Quellinus, Hiëronymus Duquesnoy and Michael Rysbrack. Besides aesthetically enjoying his drawings and terracottas, Van Herck also studied them in depth, focusing mainly on the life and work of Antwerp sculptors from the 17th and 18th century. For instance, he investigated which drawings and sculptures were related to the terracottas in his collection, including drawings from other collections in his research. In doing so, he compiled a wealth of documentation about Antwerp sculpture. He knew his subject and was a respected authority on it. As a diligent board member of the association Antwerpen’s Oudheidkundige Kring, which was co-founded by his father, he published many of his findings in the association’s yearbooks.

Charles Van Herck died in 1955 at the age of 71 in Antwerp, leaving his collections to his children. By handing over their father’s collection to the King Baudouin Foundation in Brussels, they prevented this Antwerp heritage from becoming dispersed or disappearing abroad. The foundation entrusted the old drawings to the Municipal Print Room, and the larger part of the terracottas were placed in the custody of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, both in Antwerp. The terracottas, which once could only be seen by a small group of people, are now, following the first exhibition in the aforementioned museum in 2000, once again accessible to a wide public in the exhibition in the Bonnefantenmuseum.

Charles Van Herck
The Van Herck collection
17th and 18th century terracottas