Notes

Simone Ghijsbrecht-Vanderborght was the youngest in a very cultivated family, frequented by Léon Frédéric (a Belgian symbolist painter) and Eugène Ysaye (a Belgian violinist, composer and conductor). She became a pupil of the sculptor Victor Rousseau, who made her portrait. She married a lawyer, Jacques Ghijsbrecht, but he dies soon after their marriage in 1918. In 1937 she remarried with Fritz Parmentier. Before that, she was a member of ‘Le Centaure’. Simone had close contact with amongst others, Ossip Zadkine.

Her style is very powerful, she worked in bronze or wood. Some of her works stylistically approach Oscar Jesper’s work. Simone also designed mural ruffs. After 1937 she produces mainly smaller works, this bronze can therefore be dated before 1937. She only produced sculptures of female nudes, African women in particular. She signs her work with her husband’s name or her first name.