Nicolaes van der Veken (Malines 1637 – 1704 Malines)

The Virgin and Child

Boxwood, height 20.5 cm (8.1 inch); height including base 22.5 cm (8.9 inch)

Provenance
Private collection, The Netherlands

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Nicolaes was born in Malines (Mechelen), halfway between Antwerp and Brussels, as the son of the tanner Hendrick van der Veken and Anna Claes.¹ He remained unmarried and was a member of the Jesuit society “Solidaliteit de Bejaerde Jongmans”. Nicolaes was apprenticed on 20 November 1647 to Maximiliaen Labbé, and afterwards to Lucas Fayd'herbe, whilst he studied painting wih Nicolaes Smeyers. He became a freemaster in the Guild of St Luke as sculptor on 1 February 1662. On 6 November 1679 he was one of the cosignatories of a request to the Guild to stop the importation of cheap paintings. He lived on Kapelstraat in Malines and worked almost excluively for churches and monasteries.

A highly comparable boxwood sculpture of the Virgin and Child by Van der Veken is in the collection of Museum M in Leuven (fig.).²

1. For the artist, see J. Jansen, S. Verfaille and J. Sanyova, ‘Onderzoek en behandeling van een gepolychromeerd beeld van de H. Johanna van Frankrijk, gebeeldhouwd door Nicolaas van der Veken (1637-1709)’, Bulletin van het Koninklijk Instituut voor het Kunstpatrimonium 29 (2001-2002), pp. 155-180 and I. Leyssens, ‘Het culturele leven te Mechelen. I. De beeldende kunsten. 2. De Mechelse beeldhouwers’, in: R. Foncke et al. (eds.), Mechelen de Heerlijke, Malines 1938-1947, pp. 403-452.
2. Boxwood, height 19.3 cm, inv. no. 2021.5.