Anthoni-Frans Gillis

(b D?le, bapt 7 June 1702; d Tournai, 16 Nov 1781). Flemish sculptor and painter of French birth. He was the son of Fran?ois Gillis, a Flemish wood-carver, and at the age of 15 he became a pupil of Michiel van der Voort I in Antwerp. After becoming a master sculptor in 1723, Gillis moved to Valenciennes, where he was appointed city sculptor in 1724. At the same time he was studying painting with Fran?ois Eisen and submitted a Christ (untraced) as his masterpiece. He executed work for religious foundations and churches in Valenciennes and in 1729 he produced decorations for the city's celebrations on the birth of a Dauphin. From 1756 he was in Tournai, where he created statues, for example of Ste Theresa and St Anthony, in the French taste as models for porcelain manufacturers. His most notable work is a porcelain bust of Prince Charles of Lorraine, Stadholder of the Netherlands (1756; Brussels, Mus. A. Anc.), which, although unflattering to its subject, is probably an accurate portrait. In 1757 Gillis and his son Jean Michel Gillis founded an academy of arts in Tournai.

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