Wilhelm Victor Alfred Tepe
Encyclopedia
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
in the Netherlands during the 19th century. He designed and built many churches as well as other buildings, especially in the territory of the Archdiocese of Utrecht.
Early life
Tepe was born in Amsterdam. He is the son of German parents. His father, Friederich Anton Tepe, was a textile merchantTextile industry
The textile industry is primarily concerned with the production of yarn, and cloth and the subsequent design or manufacture of clothing and their distribution. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry....
.
His mother's name was Maria Anna Sternenberg. They had moved to Amsterdam from Germany prior to his birth. Tepe married Maria Josepha Savels Alexandrina on May 24, 1870. They had two sons.
Career
Tepe studied architecture at the BauakademieBauakademie
The Bauakademie in Berlin, Germany, built between 1832 and 1836, is considered one of the forerunners of modern architecture due to its theretofore uncommon use of red brick and the relatively streamlined facade of the building.Designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the Bauakademie was built near...
(university to train architects) in Berlin from 1861 to 1864. He studied also the work of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was a French architect and theorist, famous for his interpretive "restorations" of medieval buildings. Born in Paris, he was a major Gothic Revival architect.-Early years:...
(French architect expert) when he could as he had free time, because he was dissatisfied with the classical architecture
Classical architecture
Classical architecture is a mode of architecture employing vocabulary derived in part from the Greek and Roman architecture of classical antiquity, enriched by classicizing architectural practice in Europe since the Renaissance...
oriented training of Bauakademie. He learned from Viollet-le-Duc the Gothic Revival architecture style
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
, especially that pertaining to "restorations" of medieval buildings and churches.
Tepe worked for Vincenz Statz (well known Gothic Revival architect of Germany) from 1865 to 1867 in Cologne. He was involved with Statz in the restoration and completion of the Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral is a Roman Catholic church in Cologne, Germany. It is the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne and the administration of the Archdiocese of Cologne. It is renowned monument of German Catholicism and Gothic architecture and is a World Heritage Site...
, which gave him on-the-job training. Tepe returned to Amsterdam in 1867, where he used this training experience on various churches in the Netherlands. He first started working for an architect named Ouderterp (a.k.a. Terp Parent) in the Netherlands. Tepe then moved to Utrecht
Utrecht
Utrecht is a city in the Netherlands.The name may also refer to:* Utrecht , of which Utrecht is the capital* Utrecht , including the city of Utrecht* Bishopric of Utrecht* Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht...
in 1872.
Tepe built or worked on about 70 churches in the period from 1871 to 1905 as a key member of the Guild of St. Bernulphus
Guild of St. Bernulphus
The St. Bernulphusgilde or Guild of St. Bernulphus was a Dutch secret society / trade union Catholic association established on December 1, 1869. Its intention initially was to protect national traditions of old craftmanship in religious art and church architecture...
. In these churches very little natural stone was used and brick was the material of choice. He took late-Gothic 15th- and 16th-century styles of the Lower Rhine region (Nederrijns) and Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...
as "School of Utrecht" examples to work from for the exterior of the churches he was working on. The interior of these churches in construction was provided by other members of the Guild of St. Bernulphus. Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg
Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg
Friedrich Wilhelm Mengelberg was a German-Dutch sculptor, architect of church interiors, and art collector. His work promoted the Gothic Revival architectural-style in churches throughout Germany and the Netherlands...
was the most influential of the interior designers from the guild
Guild
A guild is an association of craftsmen in a particular trade. The earliest types of guild were formed as confraternities of workers. They were organized in a manner something between a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society...
and Tepe worked closely with him.
Tepe had a virtual monopoly from 1872 until 1882, whilst Andreas Ignatius Schaepman
Andreas Ignatius Schaepman
Mgr. Andreas Ignatius Schaepman was Archbishop of Utrecht from 1868 to 1882 and President of the Great Seminary of Rijsenburg....
was archbishop, on the building of new Catholic churches in the metropolitan territories
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Utrecht
The Archdiocese of Utrecht is an archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the Netherlands. The archdiocese is the metropolitan for 6 suffragans, the dioceses of Breda, Groningen-Leeuwarden, Haarlem-Amsterdam, Roermond, Rotterdam, and 's-Hertogenbosch....
of the Archdiocese of Utrecht. Other architects didn't get much of a chance at designing and building Catholic churches in that territory during this time. They had to wait until after Schaepman's death to compete.
Nature of work
Throughout his entire career his work shows little evolution in his architectural-style. There are four periods in his career where some deviation in style is shown. Tepe tries to develop his style and experiments with several types of churches between 1871 and 1876. His churches are rarely decorated in this time period in his first phase. Tepe increases his decorations from 1876 to 1890 in a second phase of his architectural-style. In a third phase, of a time period of 1890 to 1900, he builds several hall-churches which represented a centralizing tendency. Tepe reverts back to some of his original church designs after 1900 in a fourth phase of his architectural-style. Also after 1900 he sometimes built churches in Germany, especially when the competition in the Netherlands became too strong.Tepe was the leader of a clearly identifiable direction within the Dutch Gothic Revival architecture
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
. His churches were characterized by a simple but often slender build and where possible with a high west tower. He nearly always had a three-aisled design, even in small churches. The exteriors of his churches were usually missing ornaments, except in the Rhineland
Rhineland
Historically, the Rhinelands refers to a loosely-defined region embracing the land on either bank of the River Rhine in central Europe....
, where niches
Niche (architecture)
A niche in classical architecture is an exedra or an apse that has been reduced in size, retaining the half-dome heading usual for an apse. Nero's Domus Aurea was the first semi-private dwelling that possessed rooms that were given richly varied floor plans, shaped with niches and exedras;...
, balustrades and pinnacle
Pinnacle
A pinnacle is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire...
s of decorated gable
Gable
A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of a sloping roof. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system being used and aesthetic concerns. Thus the type of roof enclosing the volume dictates the shape of the gable...
s were applied in a number of churches. Tepe even applied flying buttress
Flying buttress
A flying buttress is a specific form of buttressing most strongly associated with Gothic church architecture. The purpose of any buttress is to resist the lateral forces pushing a wall outwards by redirecting them to the ground...
es on some rare occasions. His direction of the Dutch Gothic Revival architecture was eventually taken over by, among other, Boer JW Booms and continued by, among other, Wolter te Riele. Tepe also designed various monasteries, schools, orphanages, and some houses in his career; examples are St. Jerome orphans and old people's homes in Utrecht built from 1875–1877. All these other buildings were all related to the Catholic church in some way.
Later life and death
After the death of his first wife (July 13, 1897) he married Wilhelmine Margaret Power on December 15, 1904. His second marriage produced no children.Tepe moved to Germany in 1905 and designed churches there until his death in 1920. There he designed and built a slightly different style, which regularly made use of stone. For example, the church he built in Bawinkel
Bawinkel
Bawinkel is a municipality in the Emsland district, in Lower Saxony, Germany....
was largely of sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
.
He died in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
, just one day short of being 80 years old.
Important works
The following well known churches Tepe designed.- 1874-1875 Jutphaas: St. Nicholas Church
- 1874-1876 Arnhem: St. Martin's Church
- 1875-1877 Utrecht: St. Jerome, orphanage and nursing home
- 1876-1877 Utrecht: St. Willibrord Church
- 1878-1879 Schalkwijk: St. Michael's Church
- 1881-1883 Amsterdam: St. Francis Xaveriuskirche
- 1885-1887 IJsselstein: St. Nicholas Church
- 1891-1892 Raalte: H. Kruisverheffingskerk
Sources
- BWN, Biographical Dictionary of the Netherlands, second volume, The Hague, 1985, publisher: ’s-Gravenhage : Nijhoff, ISBN 9024722780 (Dutch)