Mon De Rijck · Mon De Rijck, Carl's vader
1988 - « The love story of Léon »: het monument in het Josaphatpark
On 28 May 1988, Le Soir devoted an article to the monument "The love story of Léon", created in Schaerbeek. The newspaper tells how the municipality was finally able to raise the necessary funds in 1986, forty years after the testator's bequest, to erect the work in Josaphat Park.
The article mentions that the maquette by sculptor Mon De Rijck, former director of the National Bronze Foundry, won the jury's favour. Standing 2.4 metres tall, the Carrara marble work took seven months to complete and presents a version of the Fountain of Love legend.
Bronnen:Le Soir, 28 mai 1988 - Léon Weustenraad
Documenttranscriptie
These stones that seduced them - The love story of Léon
Schaerbeek is a land of artists. At the beginning of this century, Belgian painters and sculptors had made it the Montmartre of Brussels. Léon Weustenraad knew many of them. He owns paintings and statues signed by most of the masters who lived in his municipality. A former alderman for Fine Arts, he now sits in the mayor's office, where he succeeded Roger Nols. A hot seat, which in this torrid summer led him to dip his pen in a refreshing fountain of love…
In this heatwave, I remembered the freshness of a Schaerbeek monument inaugurated a year ago, in Josaphat Park, on the esplanade facing the refreshment stall. This sculpture recalls the legend of the Fountain of Love. It was carved in solid marble in the Carrara quarries by Mon De Ryck.
If such an important work could be produced in a period of austerity by a poor municipality, it is thanks to the generosity of François De Roy, a patron who died in 1943. He bequeathed by will a sum intended to erect on the lawns of the park, located opposite his home, a monument "embodying the legend of the Fountain of Love". The decree authorising the municipality to accept the bequest was signed by the Regent in 1946, but the sum was not sufficient to erect the monument desired by the testator. The College decided to invest the funds and scrupulously capitalise the interest for 40 years.
In 1986, the municipal council was finally able to raise the amount needed to produce the sculpture by organising a competition reserved for Schaerbeek artists. Thirteen projects were submitted and it was the maquette by Mon De Ryck, former director of the National Bronze Foundry, that won the jury's favour. Standing 2.4 m tall, the work took 7 months of labour. It tells a beautiful and sad story:
"Once upon a time, on the hill at the foot of which this spring gushes - which at the time was called Rinneborre (limpid fountain) and later became Minneborre (fountain of love) - there stood a manor occupied by happy lords. They had an only daughter, pretty, tender and wise, named Herlinde. One evening at a tournament, she met a young knight named Théobald. Very quickly, they fell in love with each other and, every day at dusk, they met near the spring. Alas! The knight received his order to leave for the crusade and had to leave his sweetheart after a thousand promises of fidelity and reunion. Every evening, Herlinde came alone to the fountain to dream of the one she loved, of past hours she missed and of coming hours she hoped for. But time passed and the handsome Théobald never gave any sign of life. Weary of waiting and exhausted by sorrow, poor Herlinde drowned herself in the spring."
This version of the legend served as the theme for the competition. There is another, less romantic and more popular one. But that is another story…
LÉON WEUSTENRAAD.