The Prix Godecharle (Dutch : Godecharleprijs), also known in English as the Godecharle Prize or the Godecharle Contest, is a contest for art students, the winners of which are granted a scholarship allocated by the Godecharle Foundation. The prize allows young talents, unknown before the award, to become recognized by a panel of experts made up of famous artists. The conditions for participation are that contestants are less than 35 years old, of Belgian nationality, or members of a country of the European Community who have lived in Belgium for at least five years. The renown of the contest is based, amongst other things, upon the reputation of the artists who sit on the jury.
Napoléon Godecharle created the Godecharle Foundation on 15 March 1871 in remembrance of his father, the prominent sculptor Gilles-Lambert Godecharle, with the aim of promoting the education and the career of young Belgian artists, either sculptors, painters or architects. To this end, the Prix Godecharle is organized by the foundation every other year. The foundation has entrusted a provincial board, the so-called Commission Provinciale des Fondations de bourses d’études du Brabant, with the management of the contest and the follow-up exhibitions of the works of participants. The Godecharle bursaries are allocated by this board, on proposals made up by the jury of renowned artists.
The first contest was organized in 1881. At the start, the competition took place every three years on the occasion of the Salons triennaux des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles in Belgium. Because of the First World War, the contest was adjourned until 1921. Since 1933, it is held every two years.
The laureates win prize money of €5,000, granted in two instalments over two years. In accordance with its founder's wishes, the winners have to spend this money on travelling abroad in order to improve their education or to conduct research, traditionally in Italy, the ceaseless return to Renaissance sources.
Many famous painters, sculptors and architects of these last hundred years have accepted to be members of the contest's jury. [1] Some of them are internationally recognized, including Emile Claus, Paul Delvaux, Léon Frédéric, Fernand Khnopff, Constant Permeke, Jean Brusselmans, Louis Van Lint, Victor Bourgeois, and Pierre Alechinsky.
The successful careers of some of the winners also boosted the renown of this contest. These winners included personalities such as Victor Horta, Egide Rombaux, Victor Rousseau, John Cluysenaar, Tom Frantzen, Olivier Leloup, Guillaume Van Strydonck, Éliane de Meuse, Taf Wallet, Alfred Bastien and Isidore Opsomer.
A significant milestone in the history of the contest was the first grant of the prize to a female sculptor in 1921. The winner Éliane de Meuse was only twenty-two years old when she won the prize. [2] and the awarding panel comprised the Belgian symbolist Alberto Ciamberlani, Armand Rassenfosse and the Belgian neo-impressionist Emile Claus. The winning work, entitled Daphnis et Chloé was of an impressive size, i.e. 225 cm by 180 cm, and depicted a naked young couple in an embrace. In his report to the Minister, the chairman of the panel highlighted the stylistic qualities of the composition. [3] [4]
The laureates of the Prix Godecharle from 1881 to the present:
Virginie Bovie (1821–1888), full name Joséphine-Louise-Virginie Bovie, was a Belgian painter and arts patron. In 1870, she was described as "well known", but she has fallen into neglect in the 20th and early 21st centuries and only seven of her more than 200 works have been located.
Éliane Georgette Diane de Meuse was a Belgian painter. She was the wife of Max Van Dyck. They met at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels where they attended the courses of the same professors.
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Germaine Van Parys, also Van Parijs, (1893–1983) was a Belgian photojournalist. She was the first woman in Belgium to join the profession, which was very unusual to find a woman mentioned in the history of photography before 1920s. She left an extensive collection covering the people and places she photographed from 1918 to 1968, documenting key events in the country's history.
Jeanne Tordeus was a Belgian stage actress. She was the first Belgian actor active at the Comédie-Française in Paris, from 1864 to 1870. From 1872 to 1909, she was active as a professor at the conservatory in Brussels. She founded the prize for declamation which bears her name: prix Jeanne Tordeus-Adeline Dudlay (1910).
Marie Anne Simonis, known as "La Grande Madame", was a Belgian textile industrialist. She played an important part in the industrialization of what is now Belgium. Together with her brother, Iwan Simonis, she introduced the mechanization of the textile industry in the territory by adopting the inventions of the British textile industry, such as the Spinning Jenny.
Henri Joseph Thomas (1878-1972) was a Belgian genre, portrait and still life painter, sculptor and etcher from the Belgian School, Brussels, Belgium.
Julia Bastin was a Belgian academic, educator and novelist.
Léonie La Fontaine was a Belgian pioneering feminist and pacifist. Active in the international feminism struggle, she was a member of the Belgian League for the Rights of Women, the National Belgian Women Council and the Belgian’s Women's International League for Peace and Freedom. Her brother was Henri La Fontaine, Belgian international lawyer and president of the International Peace Bureau who received the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1913, and was also an early advocate for women's rights and suffrage, founding in 1890 the Belgian League for the Rights of Women.
Marie Collart-Henrotin was a Belgian artist who mainly painted landscapes and animals.
Alix Apolline Louise d'Anethan was a Belgian painter.
Léonie Keingiaert de Gheluvelt was the first woman mayor in Belgium.
Barbe-Henriette Dieudonnée Dachsbeck was a Belgian educator and feminist who was instrumental in the development of women's education in Belgium at the end of the nineteenth century.
Madeleine De Meulemeester was a Belgian lawyer, scouts functionary and rescuer of Jewish children during the Second World War.
Jeanne Hovine was an actress and the first female Belgian comics artist.
Léon Van Dievoet was a Belgian architect, painter, engraver, and draughtsman.
Jeanne-Marie Artois (1762–1840) was a Belgian brewer.
Henri Joseph Van Dyck was a Belgian painter.
Éliane Gubin is a Belgian historian, researcher and professor of political and social history, specializing in the history of women and feminism. In the late 1980s, she initiated the introduction of women's history at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where she is professor emerita. She also teaches the history of contemporary Belgium and specializes in social history and political history of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, including a re-reading of the World War I. Since 1995, she has been co-director of the Centre d'archives pour l'histoire des femmes.