Willem Linnig the Elder

Willem Linnig the Elder or Willem Linnig Senior (7 August 1819, in Antwerp – 8 August 1885, in Antwerp) was a Belgian painter and engraver who is best known for his history and genre scenes and interiors painted in a style which is reminiscent of 17th century Flemish and Dutch genre painting. He taught for some time at the Fine Arts School of Weimar.

Life Willem Linnig was born in Antwerp as the son of Pieter-Josef Linnig (born in Aschbach, Rhineland-Palatinate in Germany) and Catharina Josephina Leys. His father was a cabinetmaker. He had two brothers (Jan Theodoor) Jozef Linnig and Egide Linnig who both became artists.

Linnig studied at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, where the prominent history and genre painter Jan August Hendrik Leys was one of his teachers. One of his classmates was Victor Lagye.

In 1844, Willem Linnig and his brother Egide spent some time in The Hague. In the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, they studied the works of old and contemporary masters.

Linnig died in Antwerp on 8 August 1885.