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(2) Julien Dillens
(b Antwerp, 8 June 1849; d Brussels, 24 Dec 1904). Sculptor and medallist, nephew of (1) Adolphe-Alexandre Dillens. Influenced by the sculptor Léopold Harzé (1831–93), he studied at the Brussels Académie between 1861 and 1874. While working under the direction of Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse on the sculptural decoration (1870–73) of the Brussels Bourse, he met Auguste Rodin, who employed him in his Brussels studio until 1877. At the Antwerp Salon of 1875 he exhibited Enigma (Ghent, Mus. S. Kst.), a seated female nude whose informal pose and lack of allegorical disguise were considered subversive. The following year he founded the group L’ESSOR in Brussels. In 1877 he won the Prix de Rome and went to Italy after visiting London and Paris. In Florence he made the acquaintance of Léon Frederic and executed Justice between Clemency and Law (1880; Brussels, Pal. Justice), a Mosaic old man seated between standing female figures. After visits to Vienna and Berlin he returned to Brussels in 1881. Among his most impressive monuments are those to the advocate Hippolyte Metdepenningen (1886; Ghent, Koophandelplein) and to the 14th-century alderman Everard ’t Serclaes (1902; Brussels, Grand Place), a free variation on an early Renaissance wall tomb. In his statuette of Allegretto (Brussels, Musées Royaux B.-A.) he was one of the first European artists to make use of the rich supply of ivory from the Belgian Congo (now Zaire). He also produced portrait busts (e.g. Léon Frederic, before 1888; Brussels, Musées Royaux B.-A.) and medals (e.g. Ernest Slingeneyer, 1890). From 1898 until his death, he taught at the Brussels Académie, and in 1903 he was made a member of the Académie Royale de Belgique.
Part of the Dillens family
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