Details of Sculptor

Surname

Van der Meulen

Alternative Surname

Vandermuelen

First Name

Laurens

Initial of Surname

V

Year of Birth/Baptism

1645

Flourished

Year of Death

1719

Biographical Details

He was born in Malines in 1645, the son of Pierre and Elizabeth Schuermans and entered the workshop of Pierre van der Stock on 10 November 1665. Neefs records that a note in his hand gives details of his journey to London in 1675. He married Cornélie Thérèse, née de Croes, 1702.
Among the names mentioned in the ‘License to Forainers employed at Windsor to remaine here wth. out molestation’ dated 16 November 1678, are ‘Laurence Vandermuelen and Antony Verhencke servants to Mr. Grinling Gibbons, the carver’ (TNA Domestic Entry Book, Car II, vol LI, 77, Sp 44/51, fols 77-79). Vertue notes that Gibbons ‘was neither well skill’d or practis’d in Marble or in Brass, for which works he imployd the best Artists he could procure’. These included Vandermuelen ‘of Brussels’ and A Dievot of Malines. The two men apparently ‘modelld & made’ Gibbons’s bronze statue of King James II, originally in the Privy Garden at Whitehall (Vertue V, 59, 61).
In his notes covering the years 1713-21, Vertue stated that ‘Laurence’ and Dievot were ‘still Living at Antwerp’ at that time (Vertue I, 61). They had ‘left England in the troubles of the Revolution [1688] & retird to their own Country. where Laurence became wealthy. did many Curious works. not only in the Statuary way but also carving Ornaments of wood’ (Vertue IV, 50). He died on 26 October 1719.
Literary References: Vertue I, 61; IV, 50; Neefs 1876, 219-24 ; Gunnis 1968, 406-7; Beard 1989, 52, 61,197; Gibson 1997 (1), 179; Gibson 1999, 22; Baker 2000, 86