Jean-Baptiste Bethune (April 25, 1821 – June 18, 1894) was a Belgian architect, artisan and designer who played a pivotal role in the Belgian and Catholic Gothic Revival movement. He was called by some the "Pugin of Belgium", with reference to the influence on Bethune of the English Gothic Revival architect and designer, Augustus Pugin.
Life
Jean Bethune was the eldest son of baron Felix Bethune, a textile merchant in Kortrijk and his wife, Julie de Renty (1791–1856), from Lille. His family was Flemish of French origin. He and his relatives were fervent Catholics, and many were active in politics and civil service. The family which was originally called "Bethune" was in 1845 granted nobility by the Belgian King and added the preposition "de" (some of them took the name "de Béthune-Sully"), in the 20th century, to underline their noble status. However, this great architect never used the particule.
His Irish home teacher Michel Breen first introduced him to history and antiquity, and more particularly Gothic art as an expression of Christianity. Bethune first studied law at the Catholic University of Leuven from 1837 to 1842, but did not complete his studies. It was at Leuven that he discovered the writings of Augustus Welby Pugin, the advocate of Gothicism in England and another enthusiastic Catholic.
He received his basic artistic training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kortrijk (his teachers were L. Verhaegen and Jules Victor Génisson). He took courses in landscape painting with Paul Lauters in Brussels, while the sculptor C. H. Geerts (1807–1855) – himself a pioneer of the Gothic Revival style – made him familiar with sculpture. In June 1843 he visited England, where he stayed until October. While there he met Pugin. Bethune lived in Bruges (1845–1859) where he served as the dean of the Noble Confraternity of the Holy Blood.
In June 1845, Béthune embarked on a career in public service and became secretary to the West-Flemish governor. In 1848 Béthune married Emilie van Outryve d'Ydewalle in Bruges. He served as a member of the Provincial Council of West Flanders (1848–1858), supported by his father-in-law. Bishop Jean-Baptiste Malou introduced him to the English artists' colony in Bruges.
The encounter with Pugin and his creations further stimulated Bethune's interest in architecture and applied arts. In imitation of Pugin and his followers, Bethune developed the idea that an artistic revival of the arts of the Christian world of the Middle Ages could inspire a new profoundly Christian/Catholic society. At home, Bethune was encouraged by Canon C. Carton to become involved in the creation of genuinely "Christian Art". Gradually he began to make designs himself. He returned to England in 1850 and apprenticed for several months with John Hardman, Pugin's stained-glass manufacturer, in Birmingham. Inspired by this, Bethune started a workshop for stained glass windows in 1854, together with his brother-in-law Eugène van Outryve d'Ydewalle , in the Hoogstraat in Bruges.
In 1854, Bethune designed the interior of the Chapel of the Holy Blood in Bruges. In 1857 Bethune received an important commission from the Ghent textile manufacturer Joseph de Hemptinne, shifting his field of activity to Ghent and East Flanders. In 1858 he moved with his studio from Bruges to Sint-Denijs-Westrem.
In 1862, he was a co-founder of the "Saint Luke schools" (Sint-Lucasscholen) influenced by the architectural and decorative theories of Viollet le Duc. These schools were opened as a Catholic counterpart to the official Academies and trained architects in the religious spirit of the Gothic tradition. The first permanent Saint Luke school opened in Ghent in 1863. These schools also offered an education for artisans that could work with stained-glass, wood carving, painting, gold- and silverwork... The aim was to train craftsmen that could cope with the overall decoration of a newly built, fully decorated, Gothic church. As a teacher and as a patron of the archaeological society of the "Gilde de Saint-Thomas et de Saint-Luc" founded in 1863, Bethune had a decisive influence on the evolution of the Gothic Revival style in Belgium. Among those he taught or influenced were the architects Joris Helleputte and Louis Cloquet. Abroad, he maintained contacts and was appreciated by contemporaries such as Pierre Cuypers, Edward Welby Pugin, August Reichensperger and Edward von Steinle.