Jan August Hendrik Leys

His history and genre paintings and portraits earned him a European-wide reputation and his style was influential on artists in and outside Belgium.

[3] His precocious talent was manifested at the Brussels Salon of 1836 where he exhibited his Massacre of the magistrates of Louvain for which he received high praise.

In the same year a heated discussion had started about the reform of the Antwerp Academy after its director Gustaf Wappers had resigned from his post following political pressure.

Leys' friend and fellow member of the Kunstverbond Joseph Lies authored a plan that called for the separation of the artistic and administrative functions in the academy and for ending the practice of appointing the director for life.

[2] Leys gained a considerable reputation at home and abroad and worked for an international clientele from Germany, France, England and Russia.

[5] Leys won a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1855 for his historical painting The Mass of Berthal de Haze (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels).

Critics praised the high quality of his reconstruction of the past through costumes and architecture, the realistic poses and facial expressions, the rigorous drawing and the brightness of the colours.

He was asked to paint over a period of 10 years 10 monumental murals depicting key events in the city's history.

Among these the best-known internationally is Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema who assisted Leys with the murals in the Antwerp Town Hall.

[8] Henry Leys initially worked in the Romantic style he had learned from Gustaf Wappers with whom he collaborated in the early phase of his career.

[3] The painting Wedding in Flanders in the 17th century (1839; Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) was the first to herald this more sober style.

Leys' study of 16th-century Flemish and German painters also contributed to the development of a personal style, which mingled archaistic rigidity with realistic observation.

[3] Leys' work also exerted a strong influence on his compatriots Jean Pierre François Lamorinière and Victor Lagye.

[11] Other artists such as Henri De Braekeleer and Jan Stobbaerts were able to transform Leys' teachings in a new and original language.