Ferdinand de Braekeleer the Elder

[2][4] De Brakeleer was a good pupil and continued his education at the Royal Academy for Fine Arts of Antwerp where van Bree was also a teacher.

[2] In 1813 he submitted his work Aeneas saving Anchises from the fire of Troy to the Antwerp Salon.

[2] After the establishment of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which included the territory of present-day Belgium in 1815, he was initially promised a scholarship to study abroad for three years, which was ultimately not granted.

[2] Early on, De Braekeleer decided that he wanted to make a living as a painter and he tried out several genres to find out which one would most likely bring him most success.

During his stay in Rome his tutor Van Bree visited him and the pair travelled together to several Italian cities, including Naples, Ancona, Firenze, Bologna and Venice.

They had eleven children of whom Ferdinand the Younger (1828–1857) and Henri de Braekeleer (1840–1888) followed in their father's footsteps and became painters.

He also supervised the restoration of Rubens' masterpieces the Raising of the Cross and the Deposition (both in the Antwerp Cathedral).

The success of his Celebration of the Third Thursday in Lent at the Children's School and the 50th Wedding Anniversary (both in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium) at the Brussels Salon of 1839 gained him international recognition.

He was the cofounder of the Vereniging van Antwerpse kunstenaars (the 'Association of Antwerp artists') together with Henri Leys, Gustave Wappers, Nicaise de Keyser, Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans and Joseph Lies.

He managed to handle the brush until the end of his life, leaving unfinished a large painting of the Feast of St. Thomas, a subject he had treated many years before for the Belgian King, but his eye and hand were no longer able to serve his thoughts.