Freemasonry - Lot 140

Freemasonry Masonic painting, Brussels year 5809 (1809) "Sapientia candor est lucis aeterna". With Charles-Joseph d'Ursel, Count of the Empire, Officer of the Legion of Honor, Mayor of Brussels. +-53x41cm Montclergeon Nicolas Benoit; Plasschaert Jean-Baptiste; Weissenbruch Charles Auguste; Del Marmol Ferdinand; Germain, Jean-Pierre; Lemarchand Joseph; Sironval Théodore-François; De Ronnay, Louis-François; Van Gelder Martin; Deliagre Charles-Joseph; Depaepe Joseph; De Roest Jacques Godschalk; Verstraeten Emmanuel; Depage François; De Bylandt Abraham; Crumpipen Joseph; Charlier Jean-Pierre; Malaise Charles; De Gavre Leopold; Huys de Thy Jean; Berthoud François; Loiseau Jean-Pierre; Basse Frédéric; Van Vloten Willem; Demanck; Borel; Roulet; de Celles; Denys; Choisy; Vandenbroeck; Prat; Charlé; Pourtalès; Duvergier; Fournier; d'Ursel; Ottevaere Note on Charles-Joseph d'Ursel : He shared his father's misfortunes between 1790 and 1800. Under the French occupation, urged on by friends, he became mayor of Brussels in 1810, succeeding Charles de Mérode, and was made Count of the Empire the following year. During his term of office, his attachment to his homeland and his moderation enabled him to win the affection of his fellow citizens and the esteem of French ministers. Founder of the Société des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles with Charles Van Hulthem, he helped organize the society's first exhibition in 1811, chairing its organizing committee. Resigning as mayor on February 18, 1814, he was arrested the same day by German soldiers and taken to Münster, on the pretext of having corresponded with French officials. The Brussels town council, meeting in emergency, protested and lodged a complaint with the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, who had just organized the provisional government of Belgium, leading to the immediate release of Charles-Joseph d'Ursel. He was appointed Commissaire Général aux Affaires intérieures (Minister of the Interior) of the provisional government by the Prince of Orange on August 12, 1814, then Minister of Water and Public Works from 1815 to 1819 under King William I. He became an honorary member of the Académie royale des sciences, des lettres et des beaux-arts in 1816. He then took up a high court post as Grand Master of Queen Wilhelmine's household. Minister of State in 1829, he chaired the committee responsible for devising changes in secondary education from February 1829 onwards. During the events of 1830, remaining loyal to King William, the latter called on the Duke of Ursel to chair the nine-member Consultative Commission set up on September 1, 1830 to restore calm to Belgium. He joined the Prince in Antwerp, after the evacuation of Brussels by the Dutch army, and was appointed, along with other notables, as a member of his council on October 4, a position he held until October 25, 1830. From October 4 to 16, 1830, he chaired the Prince of Orange's advisory committee on his administration of the southern provinces. Not believing he could accept the consequences of the revolution as long as he was bound by his oath, the Duc d'Ursel refrained from endorsing the new regime. It was only after the Treaty of the XXIV Articles in 1839 that the Duc d'Ursel found himself released from his oath. That same year, he became a member of the Belgian Senate, elected senator for the Antwerp district from 1839 to 1847, then for the Mechelen district from 1847 to 1859.