Andries Cornelis Lens

[3] Andries Cornelis Lens started his artistic training with the painter Carel Ykens the Younger.

To prove his qualifications for this position he gave the Academy in the year of his appointment a composition Hercules protects painting from Ignorance and Envy (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp).

[3] The governor-general of the Southern Netherlands Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine took a liking to the young artist and appointed Lens as his court painter in September 1764.

The artist left on 21 October 1764 for Italy where he studied for almost four years and copied many of the old Italian masters and in particular, Raphael.

[3] Lens tried to introduce reforms at the Antwerp Academy aimed at emphasizing the study after models from the Antique.

The Prince sent the anonymous letter on to the Antwerp city government, which in turn sought the advice of the Academy.

He prevailed in the end and the empress Maria Theresa issued on 20 March 1773 an order that liberated the painters, sculptors and engravers from the guild requirements.

The book of 412 pages and 51 plates discussed the costumes, ornaments and furnishings of the ancient Egyptians, Greek, Phrygians, Assyrians, Armenians, Hebrews, Romans, Persians as well as other nations.

Impressed by the artist who was able to discourse with him in fluent French, the emperor invited Lens to follow him to Vienna as a court painter.

[5] Lens maintained a correspondence with Swiss Neoclassic painter Julien de Parme, which has been published.

It is mainly his 1776 publication on ancient dress and costumes that had bolstered his reputation in a time when Neoclassicism in art triumphed in France.

The French actor François-Joseph Talma even visited Lens in Brussels to pay hommage to the artist who had shown him in his book how to drape the Roman togas he wore on stage.

[5] In 1811 Lens published in Brussels a book under the title Du bon goût, ou, De la beauté de la peinture, considérée dans toutes ses parties (Of good taste, or, Of the beauty of painting, considered in all its parts).

[2] His pupils included Jean-Pierre Borrekens, Cornelis Cels, Pierre Joseph Célestin François and Jacob van Strij.

[11] Andries Cornelis Lens was a painter whose main subject matter were scenes from the bible and Antique mythology.