Claus de Werve

Claus or Claux de Werve ( 1380–1439) was a sculptor active at the Burgundian court under Philip the Bold between 1395 and 1439. He was probably born in the Dutch city of Haarlem around 1380.

In 1396 he became the assistant to his uncle, Claus Sluter at the Burgundian court in Dijon, France. He helped his uncle carve the mourners on the tomb of Philip the Bold. Upon Sluter's death in 1406 he took over the position of Chief Sculptor at the court. As chief sculptor he produced a number of masterpieces, including the Virgin and Child of Poligny, now at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

Career Claus de Werve served at uncle Claus Sluter's workshop in Dijon as a sixteen-year-old sculptor's apprentice. There he worked on Sluter's most famous work, the Well of Moses. After Sluter's death in 1406, de Werve served Duke Jean the Good and his son Philip the Bold as "tailleur d'ymages et varlet de chambre".

Between 1406 and 1410, he assisted with the completion of the tomb of Philip the Bold in Champmol (now the Musée Archéologique, Dijon), on which the sculptors Jean de Marville and Sluter had earlier worked.

He is considered the author of the alabaster figures of Mourners of Dijon. Their conception is characterised by the individualisation of the monks and the expressive rendering of their draperies.

De Werve travelled to Savoy in 1408 at the invitation of Duke Amadeus VIII and probably worked at Sainte-Chapelle in Chambéry. He lived in Paris between 1400 and 141. Claus de Werve died in 1439 Virgin and Child of Poligny, c. 1415–17, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Workshop or followers Saint Paul, c. 1420–30, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gallery Attributed

Workshop or followers