Jacques de Lalaing (1858–1917) was an Anglo-Belgian painter and sculptor, specializing in animals.

Life 

Jacques was born in London in one of the oldest noble families of Belgium. He was the son of Count Maximilien IV de Lalaing (1811–1881). His brother was Charles Maximilien de Lalaing (1857–1919), who was an important diplomat.

Lalaing was raised in England until 1875, when he moved to Brussels. He trained as an artist under Jean-François Portaels and Louis Gallait at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, showing first as a painter with the group L'Essor.

With the encouragement of Thomas Vinçotte and Jef Lambeaux, Lalaing began to sculpt in 1884. As a painter he continued to work in a realistic, naturalistic style, as a portrait painter and producing historical scenes. As a sculptor he produced allegorical bronzes and memorial art. Along with his fellow animalier sculptors Léon Mignon (1847–1898) and Antoine-Félix Bouré (1831–1883), Lalaing established a distinctively Belgian tradition of animal art, to which the flourishing Antwerp Zoo contributed inspiration.

In 1896 Lalaing became a member of the Royal Academy where he had studied, and from 1904 through 1913 he served as its director. His works are represented in the collections of museums in Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent and Tournai.

Works 

 The equestrian bronze of Leopold I of Belgium in Ostend
 The horseman battle bronze group at the entrance of the Bois de la Cambre, Brussels
 memorial to British soldiers in the Battle of Waterloo, Brussels Cemetery, Brussels, 1890
 22-meter bronze pylon at the corner of Louis-Bertrand Avenue and Deschanel in Schaerbeek, originally made for the Ghent Exposition in 1913
 A group of three bronzes representing the Three Ages of Man, Square Ambiorix, Brussels
 interior work at the Hotel de Ville of Saint-Gilles, including allegorical figures of Education and Justice

Bibliography 
 Max Waller, Le salon de Brussels - 1884, Brussels, 1884.
 Jules Du Jardin, Les artistes contemporains, Brussels, 1900.
 Albert Van Dievoet, « La participation des Belges à l'exposition quatriennale à Munich », dans : L'Expansion Belge, VII, août 1909, p. 485.
 Francis Vurgey, « À l'atelier de Lalaing », dans La Fédération Artistique, Brussels, 6 décembre 1903.
 P. Lambotte, Le comte Jacques de Lalaing, peintre et sculpteur, 1858–1917, Anvers, 1918.
 Charles Conrardy, La sculpture belge au XIXe siècle, Brussels, 1947.
 Jean Portaels et ses élèves, catalogue d'exposition, Brussels, Musées royaux, 1979.
 Gérald Schurr, 1820-1920, les petits maîtres de la peinture: valeur de demain, Paris, Éditions de l'Amateur, 1979. 
 Hugo Lettens, Raymond Petiau, Hubert Verbruggen, Véronique Cnudde et Richard Kerremans, Le mât électrique : Jacques de Lalaing, 1858–1917, Schaerbeek, 1993, 133 p. 
 Jacques van Lennep et Catherine Leclercq, Les sculptures de Bruxelles, Anvers et Brussels, 2000.
 Catherine Leclercq, Jacques de Lalaing : artiste et homme du monde (1858–1917), avec de larges extraits de son journal, Brussels, Académie royale de Belgique, 2006, 443 p. .
 L'art au Sénat : découverte d'un patrimoine, Brussels : éditions Racine, 2006  .
 Hugh Robert Boudin, « de Lalaing, Jacques », in :  Dictionnaire historique du protestantisme et de l'anglicanisme en Belgique du 16e siècle à nos jours, Arquennes, 2014 .
 Alain Jacobs,  https://collections.heritage.brussels/fr/objects/43895 https://collections.heritage.brussels/fr/objects/42762https://collections.heritage.brussels/fr/objects/43885https://collections.heritage.brussels/fr/objects/43914

References

External links

1858 births
1917 deaths
Artists from London
19th-century Belgian painters
Belgian male painters
19th-century Belgian male artists
20th-century Belgian sculptors
20th-century Belgian painters
Honorary Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George
Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts alumni
Academic staff of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts
Ja
English people of Belgian descent
British emigrants to Belgium