Background
Lambeaux was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on the 14th of January 1852.
Lambeaux was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on the 14th of January 1852.
Jef Lambeaux studied at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, and was a pupil of Jean Geefs.
Jef Lambeaux's best-known work is Temple of Human Passions, a colossal marble bas-relief. He was part of a group of young artists, the "Van Beers clique", led by January van Beers. This group included the artist's Piet Verhaert (1852–1908) and Alexander Struys (1852–1941). They were well known for their mischievous and eccentric behavior, including walking around Antwerp dressed in historic costumes.
Jef Lambeaux's first work, War, was exhibited in 1871, and was followed by a long series of humorous groups, including Children Dancing, Say Good Morning, The Lucky Number and An Accident (1875). He then went to Paris, where he executed The Beggar and The Blini Pauper for the Belgian salons, and produced The Kiss (1881), generally regarded as his masterpiece.
Other notable works include his Brabo fountain in Antwerp (1886), Robbing the Eagles Eyrie (1890), Drunkenness (1893), The Triumph of Woman, The Bitten Faun (which created a great stir at the Exposition Universelle at Liege in 1905), and The Human Passions, a colossal marble bas-relief, elaborated from a sketch exhibited in 1889.
Of his numerous busts may be mentioned those of Hendrik Conscience, and of Charles Buls, the burgomaster of Brussels. Lambeaux didn't escape the wrath of art critics when he showed a life-size model of Temple of Human Passions at the Salon Triennial in Ghent in 1889.
Jef Lambeaux was a member of the Royal Academy of Science.