Cornelius Van Leemputten

Cornelius Van Leemputten (1841–1902) was a Belgian painter known for his scenes of farmyard animals and landscapes with shepherds and grazing sheep.

Life Cornelius Van Leemputten was born in Werchter as the son of Jan Frans Van Leemputten and Elisabeth Hopland. His father was originally a farmer but moved to Brussels in 1852 to become a painting restorer as he had an interest and some practice in art. Cornelius and his younger brother Frans Van Leemputten were encouraged by their father to practise art.

With the exception of a few lessons from his father, Cornelius was principally self-taught through the making of studies from nature in areas such as Brabant and the Campine region in north-eastern Belgium.

Exhibitions Van Leemputten participated in several international exhibitions and received gold medals in Ghent in 1883, Edinburgh in 1886, Port Adelaide in 1887 and in Berlin in 1896.

Partially as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, the depiction of farm animals and pastoral scenes gained popularity in the nineteenth century. The simple, rural subjects perhaps evoked nostalgia in the richer city populations of the time. The seventeenth-century artist Paulus Potter was an influence for many of the artists of this period, including Van Leemputten.

Van Leemputten produced a substantial body of work that was distributed in both local and international markets.