![Henri Leys - Self-portrait](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Henri_Leys_-_Self-portrait.jpg)
Henri Leys, Hendrik Leys or Jan August Hendrik, Baron Leys (18 February 1815 – 26 August 1869) was a
Belgian
Belgian may refer to:
* Something of, or related to, Belgium
* Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent
* Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German
*Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...
painter and
printmaker
Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...
. He was a leading representative of the historical or
Romantic school in Belgian art and became a pioneer of the
Realist movement in Belgium. His history and genre paintings and portraits earned him a European-wide reputation and his style was influential on artists in and outside Belgium.
Life
Henri Leys was born in
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, as the son of Hendrik-Jozef-Martinus Leys and Maria-Theresia Craen. His father ran a printing business specializing in religious images printed from old copper plates. The first etching by Henri Leys was a funeral image made for his father's shop in 1831. Henry Leys was not very interested in school but was very keen on drawing. His parents supported his proclivity and let him study under a furniture painter who lived next door.
Leys subsequently studied at the
Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts: from 1829 to 1832 he studied from the Antique and from 1832 to 1833 he studied drawing from life. During this period he started to work in the studio of his brother-in-law, the genre painter
Ferdinand de Braekeleer
Ferdinand de Braekeleer ( Antwerp, 12 February 1792 – Antwerp, 16 May 1883), sometimes spelled as Ferdinand de Braeckeleer, was a Flemish painter and printmaker. .
[Max Rooses, 'Joseph Lies' in: Max Rooses, 'Oude en Nieuwe Kunst', Boekhandel J. Vuylsteke, Ghent, 1896, pp. 99–125 ] One of Leys' teachers at the Academy was
Mattheus Ignatius van Bree
Mattheus Ignatius van Bree (Antwerp, 1773 – Antwerp, 1839) was a Belgian painter. He was one of the founders of the historical school of painting in Belgium and played an important role as a teacher in the development of 19th-century Belgian a ...
(1773–1839), the director of the Academy. According to a widely circulated story, during a lecture by van Bree on the draping of the gown and
peplos
A peplos ( el, ὁ πέπλος) is a body-length garment established as typical attire for women in ancient Greece by circa 500 BC, during the late Archaic and Classical period. It was a long, rectangular cloth with the top edge folded down a ...
of figures from antiquity Leys made a remark about van Bree's old-fashioned breeches. Van Bree did not appreciate the joke. But as the young hothead refused to apologize, the director expelled him from the Academy. Leys never returned to the Academy, not even as a teacher after he had achieved international success.
[Jan Lampo, ''De eerste burgerlijke uitvaart in Antwerpen, Schilder Lies reist naar het Eeuwige Oosten'']
in: EOS - Memo, 15-03-2014
From the start of his career Leys painted history and genre subjects.
[ During this period Leys often collaborated with the Belgian Romantic painter ]Gustaf Wappers
Egide Charles Gustave, Baron Wappers (23 August 18036 December 1874) was a Belgian painter. His work is generally considered to be Flemish and he signed his work with the Dutch form of his name, Gustaaf Wappers.Note: The painter is known by one ...
(1803–1874). Both artists were interested in nationalistic subjects painted in styles that owe much to the example of 16th- and 17th-century Flemish painting. In 1835 Leys went to Paris where he visited the studio of Eugène Delacroix
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...
and met Paul Delaroche
Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche (17 July 1797 – 4 November 1856) was a French painter who achieved his greater successes painting historical scenes. He became famous in Europe for his melodramatic depictions that often portrayed subjects from English ...
. The influence of Delaroche's Romanticism
Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...
is evident in Leys' early work.[Sibylle Valcke. "Leys, Henri." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 12 June 2016] His precocious talent was manifested at the Brussels Salon of 1836 where he exhibited his ''Massacre of the magistrates of Louvain'' for which he received high praise.[A. Cornette, ''Henri Leys G. Vanzijpe, Henri Leys. Nouvelle Société d'Editions, Bruxelles'', in: De Gids. Jaargang 99, P.N. van Kampen & zoon, Amsterdam 1935, pp. 219–225 ]
Leys married Adelaïde van Haren in 1841. The couple had two daughters and a son. The family Leys initially lived in the Hobokenstraat.[Christiaan Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters, van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd]
Gebroeders Diederichs, Amsterdam 1857-1864, pp. 976–979 In 1855 Leys had a more spacious house built in the street, which now bears his name, and was then called the Statiestraat. From 1857 to 1861 he worked on murals to decorate the dining room of his house.[
Leys became in 1852 member of the ''Kunstverbond'' or ''Cercle Artistique, Litéraire et Scientifique d’Anvers'' ('Art Association'), a mainly French-speaking society of intellectuals and artists. Its honorary chairman was the liberal mayor of Antwerp Jan Frans Loos. In the same year a heated discussion had started about the reform of the Antwerp Academy after its director Gustaf Wappers had resigned from his post following political pressure. The Kunstverbond championed profound changes to the organisation of the Antwerp Academy. Leys' friend and fellow member of the Kunstverbond ]Joseph Lies
Joseph Lies or Joseph Henri Hubert LiesAlso known as 'Jozef-Hendrik-Huibrecht Lies' and 'Jozef Hendrik Hubert Lies' (Antwerp, 14 Juni 1821 – Antwerp, 3 January 1865) was a Belgians, Belgian Romantic painter, draughtsman and engraver. authored a plan that called for the separation of the artistic and administrative functions in the Academy and for ending the practice of appointing the director for life. Leys, who was also member of the city council, defended the plan in the city council, but it was defeated.[
Leys gained a considerable reputation at home and abroad and worked for an international clientele from Germany, France, England and Russia. He was made a knight in the French ]Legion of Honour
The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...
and was awarded the Order of St. Michael
, status = Abolished by decree of Louis XVI on 20 June 1790Reestablished by Louis XVIII on 16 November 1816Abolished in 1830 after the July RevolutionRecognised as a dynastic order of chivalry by the ICOC
, founder = Louis XI of France
, h ...
by the king of Bavaria.[ Leys won a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1855 for his historical painting ''The Mass of Berthal de Haze'' (]Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Muse ...
, Brussels). Critics praised the high quality of his reconstruction of the past through costumes and architecture, the realistic poses and facial expressions, the rigorous drawing and the brightness of the colours.[James Tissot, ''Faust and Marguerite'']
at Musée d'Orsay Leys won another gold medal in Paris in 1867. In 1862 Leys was created a baron by the Belgian King Leopold I.[Jean F. Buyck, ''Henri Leys - Margareta van Parma overhandigt de stadssleutels aan de Antwerpse magistraat'' in OKV 1969 ]
At the request of the Belgian government, which supported the development of history painting in the country, the Antwerp city administration gave Leys in 1861 a commission to decorate the interior of the restored Antwerp Town Hall
The City Hall (Dutch: ) of Antwerp, Belgium, stands on the western side of Antwerp's Grote Markt ("Great Market Square"). Erected between 1561 and 1565 after designs made by Cornelis Floris de Vriendt and several other architects and artists, th ...
. He was asked to paint over a period of 10 years 10 monumental murals depicting key events in the city's history. Four of the murals along with 11 portraits of historical rulers of Belgium were completed between 1863 and 1869, the year in which Leys died.[ Leys had also received a commission from the Brussels city administration for a similar program of murals in its ]town hall
In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
but this commission was never commenced due to the untimely death of Leys in 1869 in Antwerp.[
Leys had a number of pupils. Among these the best-known internationally is ]Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, (; born Lourens Alma Tadema ; 8 January 1836 – 25 June 1912) was a Dutch painter who later settled in the United Kingdom becoming the last officially recognised denizen in 1873. Born in Dronryp, the Netherlands, ...
who assisted Leys with the murals in the Antwerp Town Hall. Another well-known pupil was his nephew Henri De Braekeleer
Henri Jean Augustin de Braekeleer (11 June 1840 – 20 July 1888) was a Belgian painter. He was born and died in Antwerp. He was trained in drawing by his father Ferdinand de Braekeleer, a well-known genre painter, and his uncle Jan August Hend ...
(1840–1888). Other pupils were Thomas Simon Cool
Thomas Simon Cool, a Dutch historical and genre painter, was born at the Hague on 12 December 1831. He studied at the Hague Academy under J. E. J. van den Berg, and Baron Leys, and first distinguished himself by his 'Atala,' exhibited in 1853. ...
, Charles Napier Hemy
Charles Napier Hemy (Newcastle-on-Tyne, 24 May 1841 – 30 September 1917, Falmouth) was a British genre and marine painter.
He was born to a musical family in Newcastle-on-Tyne, and trained in the Government School of Design, Newcastle, follo ...
, , Petrus Marius Molijn
Petrus Marius Molijn (9 July 1819, Rotterdam - 28 April 1849, Antwerp) was a Dutch painter. Much of his career was spent in Antwerp, which had become part of Belgium by the time of his death.
Biography
He began his artistic studies at the Roya ...
, Hendrik Albert van Trigt and Alexis Van Hamme
Alexis Van Hamme (12 July 1818, Brussels - 9 October 1875, Brussels) was a Belgian painter; known primarily for historical genre scenes.
Life and work
He studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp), with Nicaise De Keyser and Henri Leys; ...
.[Henri Leys]
at the Netherlands Institute for Art History
The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...
Work
Henry Leys initially worked in the Romantic style he had learned from Gustaf Wappers with whom he collaborated in the early phase of his career. He treated the typically Romantic subjects, ranging from heroic scenes of war and brigandage to scenes of daily life such as weddings and country festivals. Some of his works show the influence of Paul Delaroche
Hippolyte-Paul Delaroche (17 July 1797 – 4 November 1856) was a French painter who achieved his greater successes painting historical scenes. He became famous in Europe for his melodramatic depictions that often portrayed subjects from English ...
, whom he had met in Paris in 1835.[
From about 1839, Leys distanced himself from the pathos and historical anecdotes of the Romantic school. He began painting scenes set in 16th-century Antwerp, combining details studied from life with a deliberately archaising style reminiscent of 15th and 16th-century Flemish and German painting. He abandoned the bravura technique inspired by ]Rubens
Sir Peter Paul Rubens (; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat from the Duchy of Brabant in the Southern Netherlands (modern-day Belgium). He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque traditio ...
in favour of line, shape and local colour.[Jean F. Buyck, ''Henri Leys - Lucie Leys, dochter van de schilder'' in OKV 1966 ]
Many of the paintings from this period depict specific historical subjects, while others were genre scenes or portraits. This development towards Realism made him one of the pioneers of this artistic movement in Belgium.[ The painting ''Wedding in Flanders in the 17th century'' (1839; ]Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (Dutch: ''Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen'', ''KMSKA'') is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium, founded in 1810, that houses a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the fourteenth t ...
) was the first to herald this more sober style. His works from the 1640s attest to Leys' search for historical and psychological truthfulness, which replaced the emphasis on pathos and sentimental anecdote of his earlier work.[ An example of his works that abandoned historical legend in favour of a realistic depiction of historical events is the composition ''Albrecht Dürer visiting Antwerp in 1520''. Leys based this picture on the account given by Dürer in his own journal of the event.][Hugh Dunthorne, Michael Wintle, 'The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Britain and the Low Countries', Brill, 1 November 2012, pp. 192–193] In his scenes of 16th and 17th-century Antwerp, Leys sought to reflect the spirit and atmosphere of that time. His compositions of historical events and of everyday life were realistic and may have been inspired by contemporary French Realists Gustave Courbet
Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet ( , , ; 10 June 1819 – 31 December 1877) was a French painter who led the Realism movement in 19th-century French painting. Committed to painting only what he could see, he rejected academic convention and t ...
and Jean-François Millet
Jean-François Millet (; 4 October 1814 – 20 January 1875) was a French artist and one of the founders of the Barbizon school in rural France. Millet is noted for his paintings of peasant farmers and can be categorized as part of the Realism ...
.
Leys' study of 16th-century Flemish and German painters also contributed to the development of a personal style, which mingled archaistic rigidity with realistic observation.[ With these works, he earned a following among many younger artists in Belgium as well as a considerable reputation in France, where he won a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1855 for his historical painting ''The Mass of Berthal de Haze'' (]Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Muse ...
, Brussels).[
Leys was a gifted portrait painter as shown by his self-portrait, and the portraits of his ]wife
A wife (plural, : wives) is a female in a marital relationship. A woman who has separated from her partner continues to be a wife until the marriage is legally Dissolution (law), dissolved with a divorce judgement. On the death of her partner, ...
and daughter and of his fellow artists such as the portrait of the architect Alphonse Balat
Alphonse Hubert François Balat (15 May 1818 – 16 September 1895) was a Belgian architect.
Life
Balat was born in Gochenée. He studied at the Academie of Namur and obtained his degree in architecture from the Academy of Antwerp in 1838.
...
.[
Leys influenced many young Belgian artists. Some, such as ]Joseph Lies
Joseph Lies or Joseph Henri Hubert LiesAlso known as 'Jozef-Hendrik-Huibrecht Lies' and 'Jozef Hendrik Hubert Lies' (Antwerp, 14 Juni 1821 – Antwerp, 3 January 1865) was a Belgians, Belgian Romantic painter, draughtsman and engraver. , Franz Vinck
Franz Vinck or Frans Vinck (14 September 1827 – 17 October 1903) was a Belgian painter known for his history paintings, genre and Orientalist scenes and portraits. He led a peripatetic life style and travelled and worked in many countries. and Karel Ooms
Karel Ooms (27 January 1845 - 18 March 1900) was a Belgian painter of portraits, genre paintings and history paintings. He was also known for his Orientalist scenes and Oriental landscapes.
Life
Karel Ooms was born in Dessel as the youngest son ...
followed his work very closely.[ Leys' work also exerted a strong influence on his compatriots Jean Pierre François Lamorinière and ]Victor Lagye
Victor Lagye (20 June 1825, in Ghent – 1 September 1896, in Antwerp)[Victor Lagye]
at the Netherlands Institute for Art H ...
.[ ]James Tissot
Jacques Joseph Tissot (; 15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), anglicized as James Tissot (), was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of fashionable, modern scenes and society life in Paris before moving to London in 1871 ...
was influenced by Leys in his early work. Other artists such as Henri De Braekeleer and Jan Stobbaerts were able to transform Leys' teachings in a new and original language.[
]
Honours
* Member of the Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
* Knight of the Order of Leopold Order of Leopold may refer to:
* Order of Leopold (Austria), founded in 1808 by emperor Francis I of Austria and discontinued in 1918
* Order of Leopold (Belgium), founded in 1832 by king Leopold I of Belgium
* Order of Leopold II, founded in Congo ...
* Commander in the Order of Leopold Order of Leopold may refer to:
* Order of Leopold (Austria), founded in 1808 by emperor Francis I of Austria and discontinued in 1918
* Order of Leopold (Belgium), founded in 1832 by king Leopold I of Belgium
* Order of Leopold II, founded in Congo ...
, 1900[Laatste Nieuws (Het) 09-10-1900]
References
Further reading
*Berko, Patrick & Viviane. "Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875", Knokke 1981, pp. 424–426.
*Norman, Geraldine. "Leys, Baron Hendrik" in ''Nineteenth-century painters and painting: a dictionary''. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1977.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leys, Jan August Hendrik
Belgian history painters
Belgian genre painters
Belgian portrait painters
Belgian printmakers
Barons of Belgium
Academic art
Members of the Royal Academy of Belgium
Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) alumni
19th-century Belgian painters
19th-century Belgian male artists
1815 births
1869 deaths
Painters from Antwerp