Franz De Vestel archives

Collection

Holding institution:: Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles – École Supérieure des Arts, Brussels

Holding institution (official language):: Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles – École Supérieure des Arts

Scope and content:: This fonds contains two large series: the Magasins Hirsch and the Villa Altol. Every series comprises around 150-200 plans and drawings but also reports, notes and accounts related to the construction of these buildings. We find plans and drawings made in the framework of the renovation works for the Magasins Hirsch, dating back to ca. 1904-1905. The Maison Hirsch & Compagnie was officially founded in 1869 and based in the Rue Neuve in Brussels. Léo Hirsch established the Villa Johanna, a Jewish school colony in Middelkerke (Belgian coast) at the initiative of rabbi Armand Bloch. This institution opened in 1901 and bore the name of Johanna Freudenberg, wife of Lévi Hirsch, deceased in 1901. The institution welcomed poor Jewish and non-Jewish children so that they could benefit from a stay on the Belgian coast, fresh air and wholesome meals. Many children suffering from tuberculosis were sent there. The plans of the Villa Johanna were also designed by Franz De Vestel, who also built various villas in Middelkerke, in the typical bourgeois style decorated with the traditional forms of the Renaissance.

Administrative/biographical history:: Franz De Vestel (1857-1932) was born in Bruges in 1857. He studied at the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles under great masters such as Émile Janlet and Henri Beyaert. He taught at the ULB and was the uncle of the architect Lucien De Vestel. (O. de Bruyn, Inventaire des archives de la Maison Hirsch & Cie (Bruxelles, 1869-1962), I 288, Bruxelles, ARA-AGR, 2000; V.-G. Martiny, "Franz De Vestel", in Biographie nationale de Belgique, t. XXXVII, 1972, col. 801-804.)

Subject terms:: Aid and relief; Aid and relief--Philanthropy and charity; Architectural drawings; Architecture; Education; Education--Schools and universities; Trade and commerce

Access, restrictions:: Consultation (and reproduction) requires the authorisation of the director of the Centre de Recherches sur l’enseignement des Beaux-Arts.