François Xavier Joseph Jacquin

François Xavier Joseph Jacquin or Frans Jaquin[1] (1756 in Brussels – 1 November 1826, in Leuven) was a Flemish painter and draughtsman known for his portraits, still lifes and landscapes.

He commenced his art studies at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in 1768 and later moved to Antwerp where he trained in the workshop of Hendrik-Jozef Antonissen, a painter of landscapes and cattle.

He became the appointed portraitist of the notables and bourgeois of Leuven but also recruited his clientele in Hainaut, Brabant and The Netherlands.

[3] After the invasion of the Southern Netherlands by the French in 1794, Jacquin's commission work dried up and he gave up painting to trade in wine and cloth.

[5] Jacquin was together with Josse-Pieter Geedts, Frans Berges, Pieter-Jozef Verhaghen, Pieter Goyers, Martin van Dorne and Antoon Clevenbergh one of the founders of the Academy of Fine Arts of Leuven in 1800.

After the founding of the Academy, Jaquin's artistic career took off again and he re-established himself as a portrait painter to the world of merchants and the middle classes of Leuven.