Joseph Tuerlinckx

[2] Tuerlinckx was born in Mechelen as the son of Antoon (also known as Joannes Arnoldus Anthonius) and his father's second wife Maria Catharina Clavers.

In 1836 he left for Paris where he struck up a friendship with Jean Baptiste Joseph De Bay père, a sculptor originally from Mechelen who had become the conservator of Antique sculptures at the Louvre.

From his residence in Paris dates a statue of Ecce Homo (Museum Hof van Busleyden, Mechelen).

He also met with other northern artists in Rome such as the Flemish painter Jean-François Portaels and the Luxembourg sculptor Jacobi Sturm.

His marble statue of the Italian Renaissance painter Giotto as a 10-year-old boy (Museum Hof van Busleyden, Mechelen) was also produced during his Rome period and later received an honorable mention at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1855.

The memorial he made for his friend Jacobi Sturm, who had died in Rome in 1844, was unveiled in 1845 in the Chapel Church in Brussels.

The statue was unveiled on 2 July 1849 in the presence of king Leopold I of Belgium, the royal family and an enthusiastic crowd that had flocked there from all parts of the country.

In the following year he was appointed teacher of modelling, dissection and history of art at the Academy of Mechelen, a position he held until the end of his life.

On 12 September 1857 he donated to the city council of Mechelen the collection of musical pieces written by his older brother.