Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans

[2][3] Josephus Laurentius Dyckmans was born in Lier where he received his first artistic training from the local painter Melchior Gommar Tieleman.

He studied at the Antwerp Academy from 1834 to 1835 and worked in the workshop of Gustaaf Wappers, one of the leading Romantic and history painters of Belgium at the time.

His 1838 submission of a Vegetable market to the Ghent salon was a sensation and was subsequently exhibited in Antwerp in 1840 and The Hague in 1841.

[4] Dyckmans had many students including from Belgium and abroad such as Franz Vinck, Jan Geeraerts, Ernst Stückelberg, Wilhelm Busch, Paul Weber and Emil Hünten.

The members of this school of painting chose as the subject matter of their work important historical events in Belgium’s history, which were regarded as key to the country’s national identity.

Dyckmans was a master in the refined art of painting which represented each reflection, wrinkle, hair, leaf of a tree etc.

He painted the original in 1852 (Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp) and made a reduced copy which is in the National Gallery, London.

[13] Dyckmans painted later a variation on the theme of the blind beggar of which he also made a reduced copy (private collections).