(b Diksmuide, west Flanders, 18 June 1740; d Ghent, 12 Nov 1809). Flemish sculptor. He studied at the Academy of Bruges before entering the studio of Hendrik Pulinx. In 1763 he left for Paris, where in 1765 he registered at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. He worked in the studio of Guillaume Coustou (ii) and later in that of Jean-Baptiste Pigalle. By 1768 he was in Rome, but none of the sculptures he made there has been traced. In 1774 he left for Naples to make a portrait bust of Queen Maria-Carolina (marble, 1776; Vienna, Schloss Schönbrunn). The Queen awarded him a pension and gave him letters of introduction to Charles of Lorraine, Governor of the Netherlands (d 1780). As a result, van Poucke received in 1776 a commission for two large marble statues of St Peter and St Paul (installed 1782) for the cathedral of St Bavo, Ghent. He visited Rome twice more (between 1776 and 1779) before settling in Ghent, where, in collaboration with François-Joseph Janssens, he executed another sculpture for the cathedral: the funerary monument of Bishop G. van Eersel (marble, 1782). Most of van Poucke’s output was for churches in Flanders, including St Jacob, St Michiel and St Pieter in Ghent; for St Maarten in Moerzeke; for the cathedral of St Donatian (destr.) and the cathedral of St Salvator in Bruges; and the church of SS Michiel, Cornelius and Ghislenus in Machelen, where he made the high altar, the pulpit, and the communion table. Several of his works were destroyed during World War I, among them marble statues of Faith and Hope for St Maarten, Ypres. Van Poucke was also responsible for a white marble low relief with a black border on the funerary monument to Anne Petrie (d 1787) in St Mary, Lewisham, London, which was set up by the English sculptor Thomas Banks.

• Poucke, Karel van
  • Belgium, §IV, 3: Sculpture, c 1550–1830
  • Janssens, François-Joseph