Pierre de Soete

PIERRE DE SOETE (Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, 1886 - Brussels, 1948).
"Bust of the lawyer Jules Destrée".
Bronze.
Signed and with stamp of the publisher Montagutelli, Brussels.
Measurements: 100 x 60 x 80 cm.

Jules Destrée is a Belgian politician, doctor in law, born in Marcinelle in 1863 and died in 1936. A bourgeois humanist, the trials that followed the strikes of 1886 will determine his commitment to the Belgian Workers Party, the ancestor of the Socialist Party.
Pierre de Soete trained at the Academy of Drawing in Molenbeek while learning to model in a self-taught manner. He apprenticed at the Compagnie des Bronzes and met sculptors, notably Julien Dillens, Constantin Meunier and even Jef Lambeaux. Working full time as a sculptor since 1924, he received numerous commissions, among others, for war monuments.