Frans Van Leemputten

Vocation

Belgian painter. He studied with the landscape painter Paulus Lauters at the Academie Royale de Beaux-Arts in Brussels, and he also attended the free studio known as 'La Patte de Dindon' with Constantin Meunier and Frans Courtens (1854-1943). He took part in exhibitions organized by La Chrysalide, a group in Brussels that championed the Realist movement. He was influenced by the writings of the Realist novelist Hendrik Conscience and devoted his career to portraying life in Campine, emphasizing the resignation and monotony of rural life. His work shows him to have been an attentive observer, although his pictures always evince an atmosphere of gentle melancholy, as in Peasants on their Way to Work (1887; Brussels, Mus. A. Mod.) and Distribution of Bread in the Village (1892; Antwerp, Kon. Mus. S. Kst.). From 1888 he was influenced by Luminism, and his paintings became brighter, although his subjects did not change. He participated in many international exhibitions and received numerous medals. He was appointed Professor of Animal Painting at the Nationaal Hoger Instituut en Koninklijke Academie Voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp, the city in which he settled and pursued his academic career. He died 26 November 1914.