Hendrik LEYS (1815-1869) - Lot 30

Hendrik LEYS (1815-1869) Couple pensif, oil on panel, signed lower right, 46 x 30 cm. Note: Trained at the Antwerp Academy under Mathieu-Ignace Van Brée and Ferdinand de Braekeleer, Leys began his career in the historical Romantic movement alongside Egide Charles Gustave Wappers. A trip to Paris in 1835 brought him into contact with Eugène Delacroix and Paul Delaroche. Trips to the Netherlands (1839) and Germany (1852) nurtured his taste for Lucas Cranach, Hans Holbein the Younger and Albrecht Dürer, which he incorporated into a Flemish neo-Renaissance style combining meticulous realism, smooth workmanship and intimate scenes. A scrupulous portraitist celebrated by Camille Lemonnier, Leys excelled in both historical subjects (Philip the Good, The Siege of Antwerp, The Edict of Charles V, Luther visiting Calvin) and genre scenes (The Family Feast, The Housewife, The Vow). Winner of the gold medal at the 1855 Universal Exhibition, he became a member of the Académie royale de Belgique and a benchmark for a whole generation of painters.