Werk-woonhuis, Markt bij 2

English translation

The text above is the record as published by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed, in Dutch. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed; it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

Introduction

The DWELLING HOUSE from 1909 stands in the centre of Axel, at right angles behind the national monument Markt 2. It concerns the former dwelling house with painter's shop of Clement Benedictus Antheunis (Terneuzen 1875-Axel 1952). Antheunis was also the builder of the national monument Markt 2, built in 1919 in a transitional style between Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The house Markt 2a was from then on used entirely as a dwelling house. The Antheunis family kept possession of the properties until the sale to the municipality of Terneuzen in the nineteen-eighties of the twentieth century. After various ideas about demolition and redevelopment, both properties have formed part of the Streekmuseum Land van Axel since 2012. The interior of the dwelling house Markt 2a is abundantly provided with paintings and decorations by Clement Benedictus Antheunis in various rooms. He was trained as master painter and master decorative painter in Ghent, Zelzate and Bruges. Antheunis worked mainly in Zeeuws Vlaanderen and North Brabant. As far as is known, his wife had an important say in the iconographic programme in the dwelling house and the decorations were executed in the evenings after the work in the shop was done. It is known that Antheunis was very well read. From the work in Markt 2, largely in a style at the intersection of art nouveau and art deco, there speaks a great knowledge of current stylistic developments, art history and the classics. The work was executed with great craftsmanship in diverse techniques and can be seen as characteristic, in particular of Antheunis's Brussels training. In the preparation of this explanatory description, not all decorations and paintings had yet been uncovered. That which is visible is described, but the entire property falls legally under protection.

Description

Exterior

DWELLING HOUSE on square plan, one and a half storeys high and provided with a cut-off hipped roof, which is covered with suppressed Tuiles du Nord. The front facade is built in a simple neo-Renaissance manner and arranged almost symmetrically. The broad window on the right-hand side indicates the location of the former painter's shop. Characteristic is the brick roof dormer with plastered gable crests. The windows and all leaded-light fanlights date from the time of construction; only the front door has been renewed.

Interior

The property is in plan a simple dwelling-shop house. The original structure of central passage with side rooms, cellar and attic, is still entirely intact. Highly exceptional are the wall and ceiling paintings and decorations which were applied between approximately 1910 and 1920 by owner and resident Clement Benedictus Antheunis.

Ground floor: The central passage is provided with a decorative terracotta tile floor, painted walls and a painted, cardboard ceiling with coving of carton pierre. The style is art nouveau and the use of colour mainly in pastel, except for the bright colours such as purple and yellow of the dados. The paintings consist, as far as uncovered, in the dado of a nocturnal scene with finely painted little owls and stars. Above the dado are paintings of plants and animals (dead ducks) visible and at the end of the passage, by the staircase are peacock feathers visible. Above the staircase is a fine band of polder landscapes with swallows. The rest of the painting on the long walls is (December 2011) still not uncovered. Of the door surrounds, part of the original finish has been uncovered, consisting of tampon techniques in grey tones. The cornice along the ceiling is provided with flowers. The cardboard ceiling has whip-stroke motifs. Halfway along the passage are two consoles in the form of painted female heads set in the ceiling. Presumably a curtain hung here in the past.

The room on the right-hand side is the former painter's shop. This was taken into use as living space after the construction of the new shop Markt 2 in 1920. There is a wooden floor with stencil techniques that suggest a carpet and a cornice in the form of an egg-and-dart moulding in carton-pierre technique. In the cardboard ceiling various little scenes are painted in marouflage technique (small paintings on linen). Of these little scenes, one had been uncovered in 2011, depicting a bunch of red anemones. The remains of the paper wall coverings, the oldest wall coverings in the house, show a total programme of walls and ceiling in this room. All colours and motifs connect entirely to each other. Also visible is the signature on the wall, making clear how Antheunis carefully outlined the transitions between coving, borders and strips before he hung the walls.

The room on the left-hand side is the former en-suite room. The front room is probably the former 'good' or representative room. Here only the cardboard ceiling with the cornice in carton-pierre technique remains. The ceiling is provided with painted angels and little stars in gold, white and blue and a flower-shaped central decoration. The cornice has a classical Doric structure, interrupted by bows in an Empire manner. The wall and floor decorations have disappeared in this room, as has the original suite. The former back room is provided with decoratively painted beams with cardboard painted between them. Paper wall coverings also remain here on the painted walls and fireplace section. Green tones predominate. Striking are the old Dutch sayings in art-nouveau typography and the Egyptian-seeming flower motifs. Two wall paintings with domestic scenes in a more academic style have been uncovered, as well as a still life above the door to the passage. The floor is provided with heavy terracotta tiles with flower motifs. A number of original doors of the front and back room have been preserved, among other things provided with flower motifs that match the other paintings.

First floor: The paintings on the walls of the landing are applied to stucco with a wicker base. The representations concern ten Arcadian scenes of life-sized, half-naked children (putti) who play and make music with animals against a background of tendrils and fruits. As a frame for the scenes Doric columns and friezes with ram's heads and oranges are used. The coving in carton-pierre technique has a forerunner of the egg-and-dart moulding as motif. The doors on the landing are provided with the original imitation-wood painting. Striking are the contrasts between the black framing of, for example, the columns and doors and the pastel tones of the figures. This creates a clear sense of depth. On the cardboard ceiling, alongside various decorative elements, the four seasons are depicted. The wooden floor is provided with white imitation marble.

On the right-hand side is a room with a very special wall painting, which was hidden behind bookshelves on this bedroom: a woodland landscape with farmstead and stream, in a more academic style and provided with the signature '1917-28-3 C.B Antheunis'.

The front and back rooms on the left-hand side have fireplaces with classical motifs, of which (as yet) nothing is known about what their original finish was. Also some paper wall coverings have been found from presumably the second half of the twentieth century.

The attic has a boarded roof truss structure of untreated wood.

Valuation

The DWELLING HOUSE with paintings and decorations by C.B. Antheunis from approximately 1910-1920 is of general interest from the point of view of architectural history, urban planning and cultural history:

- as a well-preserved dwelling house in simple neo-Renaissance manner from 1909;

- because of the very well-preserved decorations and paintings in a style at the intersection of art nouveau and art deco, and some more academic pieces by the hand of resident and owner, the master painter and master decorative painter C.B. Antheunis trained in Ghent, Zelzate and Brussels; aside from technical mastery, great knowledge of art history and the classics speaks from the Gesamtkunstwerk;

- because of the exceptional fact that the entire house is decorated in a comparable style by one artist as one particular total programme and has been preserved to this day almost completely intact, which can be called nationally unique, certainly from this period;

- as a sample card of high-quality executed painter and decoration techniques from the early twentieth century, which represents the work of many other decorative painters but of which little work has been preserved or has remained visible;

- as a very rare example of decoration and painting techniques of Flemish / Brussels origin and as a characteristic example of the 'cross-pollination' between Zeeuws and Belgian Flanders, as is also present to this day;

- because of the relationship with the adjacent shop Markt 2 (national monument), which was also owned by Antheunis and in which paintings and decorations by his hand are also present;

- as part of the local history of Axel and one of the Roman Catholic entrepreneur families there.