Andries Cornelis Lens

Andries Cornelis Lens or André Corneille Lens (Antwerp, 31 March 1739 – Brussels, 30 March 1822) was a Flemish painter, illustrator, art theoretician and art educator. He is known for his history paintings of biblical and mythological subjects and portraits. Wishing to contribute to the revival of painting in Flanders, he took his inspiration from the classical traditions of the 16th century and drew inspiration from Raphael. He was thus a promoter of Neoclassicism in Flemish art. He was a teacher and director of the Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp. Lens was court painter to the governor-general of the Austrian Netherlands and settled in Brussels where he married. Lens was also a writer and historian who published an illustrated book which discussed the costumes, ornaments and furnishings of the various people in Antiquity and another book setting out his art theories.

Life Andries Cornelis Lens was the son of Corneille Lens and Magdalena Slaets. His father was originally from Tilff near Liège, a Walloon city then in the Prince-Bishopric of Liège. His father was a flower painter and gilder who had moved to Antwerp at a young age. Here he had joined the local Guild of Saint Luke. Corneille Lens became the dean of the Guild but often had conflicts with the Guild. He travelled back to Antwerp via Paris where he was exposed to new currents in art. Upon his return to Antwerp Lens became a promoter of these new ideas. When his young brother Jacob was denied a first prize in a local drawing competition, he took the matter very personally. He sent an anonymous letter to Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine at the court of Brussels pleading for the removal of the Guild's authority over Antwerp's artists and placing that authority in the hands of the Academy, which would determine the fitness of an artist to practise. As a court painter himself, Lens was in fact not subject to the Guild restrictions. He argued that the mixing of the painters with the craftsmen in the Guild was an unnecessary burden on the painters. The Prince sent the anonymous letter on to the Antwerp city government, which in turn sought the advice of the Academy. The Guild opposed any reform to the current system. Lens visited the Prince to plead his case in person. He prevailed in the end and the empress Maria Theresa issued on 20 March 1773 an order that liberated the painters, sculptors and engravers from the guild requirements. After the death of his patron Prince Charles Alexander of Lorraine in Brussels on 4 July 1780, Lens moved to Brussels. From here he sent in December 1780 to the Antwerp Academy his letter of resignation. When emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria visited Antwerp on 18 June 1781, Lens was able to arrange an invitation to show the emperor the artworks in the Cathedral of Antwerp. He was then invited by the emperor to join him in his carriage to show him other artistic highlights in Antwerp. Impressed by the artist who was able to discourse with him in fluent French, the emperor invited Lens to follow him to Vienna as a court painter. Lens had to decline as he had to marry Petronella Josepha de Suemoy in Brussels.

The Brabant Revolution of 1789 and the later occupation of the Southern Netherlands by the French did not harm the artist. He was elected to the Institut de France, then called the Institut National. It is mainly his 1776 publication on ancient dress and costumes that had bolstered his reputation in a time when Neoclassicism in art triumphed in France. The French actor François-Joseph Talma even visited Lens in Brussels to pay hommage to the artist who had shown him in his book how to drape the Roman togas he wore on stage.

After 1815 when the Southern Netherlands had become part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Lens became a member of the Koninklijk (Nederlands) Instituut van Wetenschappen, Letterkunde en Schoone Kunsten (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ) and was made a knight of the Belgian lion by King William I of the Netherlands.

Work Andries Cornelis Lens was a painter whose main subject matter were scenes from the bible and Antique mythology. He was an early representative of Neoclassicism in Flemish painting. His version of Neoclassicism is very personal and influenced by Flemish painting traditions.

While his work was not appreciated by his contemporary Flemish artists, he was successful in his time and had various important patrons. However, he did not establish his own school and his reputation did not survive for long.