Charles De Brichy 1878-1913, Belle d'Aurore, Carrara Marble Sculpture, Brussels, 1901.

Charles de Brichy (1878-1913), Belle d'Aurore, white Carrara marble statuary, signed C. de Brichy, Brussels, 1901.

Charles de Brichy was a Belgian sculptor born in 1878 in Wetteren, East Flanders. Little known to the general public today, he was nevertheless a promising figure in Belgian sculpture at the turn of the 20th century. At a very young age, he demonstrated a certain artistic talent, which led him to win the Prix Godecharle in 1903, one of the highest distinctions in Belgium for young artists. This prize, awarded every two years, allowed many emerging talents to achieve artistic recognition and to continue their research, sometimes abroad. Unfortunately, Charles de Brichy's career was short: he died prematurely in Brussels in 1913, at the age of 35.

Despite his early death, he left behind several works, the most emblematic of which is undoubtedly Belle d'Aurore, also known as La Belle Aurore. This sculpture comes in two major versions. The first, in plaster, is signed "Ch. de Brichy" and measures approximately 1.20 meters high. It is kept at the Wiertz Museum, part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, in Brussels. The second version, made of marble, was also acquired in 1901 and exhibited from 1922 in the Marie-José Park in Molenbeek-Saint-Jean, in the open air. This monumental statue, elegantly seated, embodies the allegory of Dawn - the moment when night gives way to daylight. It evokes a slender and meditative female figure, imbued with calm and light, in the symbolist tradition that was then crossing Europe. Unfortunately, this marble version was damaged during the Second World War, but it remains a precious testimony to Brussels public art of this period. With his delicate style and his sense of volume, Charles de Brichy is part of the lineage of sculptors sensitive to the expression of the body and the poetry of forms. Belle d'Aurore remains today one of his rare visible testimonies, reminding us that a shortened destiny does not erase the light of a true talent.