Pierre Joseph Célestin François or Joseph François (29 March 1759 - 13 March 1851) was a history, genre and miniature painter and etcher from the Southern Netherlands.Joseph François
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

He is known for his religious and mythological subjects and portraits executed in a Neoclassicist style.

Life

François was born in

Namur Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namur stands at the confl ...

in 1759, the son of Charles Isidore François (1724-1788), manager of the tobacco factory of Viscount Desandrouin and Robertine Dumont (1734-1767). He grew up in

Charleroi Charleroi (, , ; ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. It is the largest city in both Hainaut and Wallonia. The city is situated in the valley of the Sambre, in the south-west of Belgium, not ...

where he first studied drawing with Pierre Balthasar de Blocq. At age 11, François started his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp where his teachers included

Andries Cornelis Lens Andries Cornelis Lens or André Corneille Lens (Antwerp, 31 March 1739 – Brussels, 30 March 1822)Andries Lens
at th ...

, an Antwerp artist later working in Brussels in a Neoclassicist style, and Willem Jacob Herreyns, a late follower of Rubens.Henri Hymans, ''Pierre Joseph Célestin François'' in: Biographie Nationale Belge
Volume 7, pp. 259-260 François remained at the academy for eight years. François traveled in 1778 in France and then to Italy where he resided in Rome until 1781. During this period he traveled in Italy. François then left for Germany and stayed in Vienna for six months, then returned to Antwerp. Back in Rome in 1789 François remained in the city for three years. His patrons included Prince Lambertini. François finally returned and established himself in Brussels, where he became a professor at the

Academy An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

and the local Atheneum. On 25 February 1799, François married Marie-Françoise Leyniers, from the famous family of Brussels tapestry weavers. The couple had five children. François dedicated his time to teaching and decorative works with mythological subject matter. On some of these works he collaborated with his former teacher Andries Cornelis Lens who had moved to Brussels from Antwerp. François' pupils were very numerous, including Navez, Decaisne, Madou, and others. He also trained his son Ange François, who also worked in his workshop.Richard Kerremans, ''Ange François''
in: Dictionnaire des peintres belges He died in 1851 in

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

Work

Among his works are: *''Marius sitting on the Ruins of Carthage''. ( Brussels Gallery.) *''A Physician consulted by two old Women''. ( Haarlem Museum.) *''The Assumption''. ( Ghent Academy.)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Francois, Pierre Joseph Celestin 1759 births 1851 deaths People from Namur (city) 18th-century Flemish painters 19th-century Flemish painters