Modelled and fired. Originally painted grey and partially gilded. The reverse is flat.

The layer of grey paint and the gilding have been removed. Complete with the original console (BK-1959-77-B).

…; from an unknown church in Zeeland;¹¹C. Van Herck, ‘Walter Pompe en zijn werk’, Antwerpen’s Oudheidkundige Kring 11 (1935), pp. 145-86, esp. p. 175. …; from Hippoliet Meeus (1892-1914), Wijnegem, to Mr Lowet de Wotrenge, Château de Crimont, date unknown;²²C. Van Herck, ‘Walter Pompe en zijn werk’, Antwerpen’s Oudheidkundige Kring 11 (1935), pp. 145-86, esp. p. 175. whose sale, Brussels (Galerie Léopold), 20 November 1933, nos. 240-51; …; acquired from the dealer J.J.Th.M. Bless, Lent (near Nijmegen), fl. 1,500, donated by the Commissie voor Fotoverkoop, to the museum, 1959

Object number: BK-1959-77-A

Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Stichting tot Bevordering van de Belangen van het Rijksmuseum

This terracotta of the apostle St James the Less with accompanying rococo console (BK-1959-77-B) is signed by the Antwerp sculptor Walter Pompe (1703-1777). Originally it was one of a series of twelve apostles which he modelled in 1773-74.³³See C. Van Herck, ‘Walter Pompe en zijn werk’, Antwerpen’s Oudheidkundige Kring 11 (1935), pp. 145-86, esp. pl. IX. Twenty-two preliminary drawings of this ensemble, signed by Pompe, still exist, a fact that is telling for the artist’s assiduousness.⁴⁴C. Van Herck, ‘Walter Pompe en zijn werk’, Antwerpen’s Oudheidkundige Kring 11 (1935), pp. 145-86, esp. nos. 118, 169, 171, 172. For illustrations of four of the drawings, see ibid. pl. XVI, no. 171. The figures are said to have come from a village church in the province of Zeeland.⁵⁵Information on the provenance is taken from C. Van Herck, ‘Walter Pompe en zijn werk’, Antwerpen’s Oudheidkundige Kring 11 (1935), pp. 145-86, esp. p. 175. It is not known how and when they were acquired by Hippoliet Meeuws, a distiller of gin and burgomaster of Wijnegem. Mr Lowet de Wotrenge of Château de Crimont purchased them from him at some time. The apostle statues were split up in 1933 following the sale of the latter’s collection. In 1959 the Rijksmuseum was able to buy the sculpture of St James the Less on the art market.

James’ face is turned to the right. In his right hand, resting on his attribute, the club, he clasps a scroll. With his left hand he holds up his wide, flowing mantle. On the plinth Pompe inscribed the name of the portrayed apostle, as well as the Roman numeral six, indicating the place in which the piece was to be installed in the church in relation to the other apostles. The direction of their gaze, looking slightly down, with one half of the figures looking to the left and the others to the right, indicates that, as was customary, they were probably arranged in two rows, somewhat high up on their individual consoles against the pillars of the nave.

Although the series of apostles was one of the last assignments of the by then seventy-year old sculptor, the style still recalls the late-baroque work of his teacher, Michiel van der Voort (1667-1737). For instance, his series of apostle figures of 1691-1710 in the Sint-Pauluskerk in Antwerp is comparable in typology.⁶⁶Cf. P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, pp. 744-45 (ill.). However, Pompe’s apostles are decidedly more subdued and benign, in keeping with the contemporary preference for restrained elegance. For the statues of St Paul and St Peter, Pompe re-used models he had made in 1759.⁷⁷C. Van Herck, ‘Walter Pompe en zijn werk’, Antwerpen’s Oudheidkundige Kring 11 (1935), pp. 145-86, esp. nos. 116 and 122. The terracotta consoles, with their graceful rococo ornaments, were quite outmoded in the mid-1770s, when the Louis XVI style was already long underway in the Netherlands.⁸⁸A comparable rococo console by Walter Pompe can be found under his statue of St Michael dating from 1764 in the Sint-Michielskerk in Brecht, see L.C.B.M. van Liebergen et al., Walter Pompe, beeldhouwer: 1703-1777, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1979, no. 46. In 1774, the year in which the apostles series was completed, Pompe also made two alabaster holy water fonts in rococo style for the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekerk in Dendermonde, see ibid., no. 211. Perhaps Pompe was no longer inclined to adopt this new style in his old age, although such conservatism could also have been due to the preference of his principal.

In 1964 the Art and History Museum in Brussels acquired the sculptures of St Andrew, St Judas Thaddeus and St Thomas,⁹⁹Aanwinsten 1964-1973, coll. cat. Brussels (Royal Museums for Art and History) 1974, no. 64. and in 1978 those of St John, St Mathew and St Simon followed.¹⁰¹⁰L.C.B.M. van Liebergen et al., Walter Pompe, beeldhouwer: 1703-1777, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1979, nos. 52-54. These terracottas still have their original coat of grey paint and the gilded hems to their cloaks. The purchase by the museum of Saint-Amand-les Eaux in 1985 of the St James the Greater meant that the ninth terracotta from the series was accounted for.¹¹¹¹A. Jacobs and S. Vézilier, Fascination Baroque: La Sculpture Baroque Flamande dans les Collections Publiques françaises, exh. cat. Cassel (Musée départemental de Flandre) 2011-12, no. 35. Unfortunately the whereabouts of the other four apostles is not known.

Bieke van der Mark, 2025

J. Leeuwenberg with the assistance of W. Halsema-Kubes, Beeldhouwkunst in het Rijksmuseum, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1973, no. 409, with earlier literature; Aanwinsten 1964-1973, coll. cat. Brussels (Royal Museums for Art and History) 1974, under no. 64; L.C.B.M. van Liebergen et al., Walter Pompe, beeldhouwer: 1703-1777, exh. cat. Uden (Museum voor Religieuze Kunst) 1979, p. 119; F.M. Kammel et al., Kleine Ekstasen: Barocke Meisterwerke aus der Sammlung Dessauer, exh. cat. Nuremberg (Germanisches Nationalmuseum)/Graz (Steiermärkisches Landesmuseum Joanneum)/Magdeburg (Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen) 2001-02, p. 90; P. Philippot, D. Coekelberghs, P. Loze and D. Vautier, L’Architecture religieuse et la sculpture baroques dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux et la principauté de Liège: 1600-1770, Sprimont 2003, p. 1045; A. Jacobs and S. Vézilier, Fascination Baroque: La Sculpture Baroque Flamande dans les Collections Publiques françaises, exh. cat. Cassel (Musée départemental de Flandre) 2011-12, p. 130

B. van der Mark, 2025, 'Walter Pompe, St James the Less, Antwerp, 1773', in F. Scholten and B. van der Mark (eds.), European Sculpture in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20035848