page_title: Jan August Hendrik Leys
section_title: Work
hierarchical_section_title: Jan August Hendrik Leys / Work
context_page_description: Henri Leys, Hendrik Leys or Jan August Hendrik, Baron Leys was a Belgian painter and printmaker. He was a leading representative of the historical or Romantic school in Belgian art and became a pioneer of the Realist movement in Belgium. His history and genre paintings and portraits earned him a European-wide reputation and his style was influential on artists in and outside Belgium.
context_section_description: 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. He treated the typically Romantic subjects, ranging from heroic scenes of war and brigandage to scenes of daily life such as weddings and country festivals.  Some of his works show the influence of Paul Delaroche, whom he had met in Paris in 1835.
  From about 1839, Leys distanced himself from the pathos and historical anecdotes of the Romantic school.  He began painting scenes set in 16th-century Antwerp, combining details studied from life with a deliberately archaising style reminiscent of 15th and 16th-century Flemish and German painting.  He abandoned the bravura technique inspired by Rubens in favour of line, shape and local colour.
  Many of the paintings from this period depict specific historical subjects, while others were genre scenes or portraits.  This development towards Realism made him one of the pioneers of this artistic movement in Belgium. 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.  His works from the 1640s attest to Leys' search for historical and psychological truthfulness, which replaced the emphasis on pathos and sentimental anecdote of his earlier work. An example of his works that abandoned historical legend in favour of a realistic depiction of historical events is the composition Albrecht Dürer visiting Antwerp in 1520.  Leys based this picture on the account given by Dürer in his own journal of the event. In his scenes of 16th and 17th-century Antwerp, Leys sought to reflect the spirit and atmosphere of that time.  His compositions of historical events and of everyday life were realistic and may have been inspired by contemporary French Realists Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet. 
  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. With these works, he earned a following among many younger artists in Belgium as well as a considerable reputation in France, where he 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).
  Leys was a gifted portrait painter as shown by his self-portrait, and the portraits of his wife and daughter and of his fellow artists such as the portrait of the architect Alphonse Balat.
  Leys influenced many young Belgian artists. Some, such as Joseph Lies, Franz Vinck and Karel Ooms followed his work very closely. Leys' work also exerted a strong influence on his compatriots Jean Pierre François Lamorinière and Victor Lagye. James Tissot was influenced by Leys in his early work. Other artists such as Henri De Braekeleer and Jan Stobbaerts were able to transform Leys' teachings in a new and original language.
caption: The singer
exif: {"Image PhotometricInterpretation": "2", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ExifOffset": "102", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "875", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "928"}