Frans Van Leemputten

Under the influence of Constantin Meunier and the Dutch landscape painter Paul Gabriël who was then living in Brussels and the reading of Hendrik Conscience's novels which extolled the virtues of the peasants of the Campine, Van Leemputten started to devote himself almost exclusively to the depiction of that region and its inhabitants.

[4] In 1872 Van Leemputten made his debut at the salon of La Chrysalide, the group to which also James Ensor, Louis Artan and Guillaume Vogels belonged.

He also joined 'L'Essor', a group which mainly promoted realism and assisted its members financially and with the organization of exhibitions and the purchase of materials.

Through his membership of these two groups Van Leemputten was closely linked to some of the most progressive Belgian artists of his day.

[2] Van Leemputten was in 1892 appointed professor of the painting of animals at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts of the Antwerp Academy.

Van Leemputten was part of a group of Belgian painters who took refuge from the complexity of urban life to look for simplicity, purity and naturalness in the pre-industrial countryside.

Some of these artists, such as Theodoor Verstraete and Van Leemputten who both worked in the Campine, depicted the rural reality from their own urban background and viewpoint.