HERREYNS, Willem

(b. 1743 Antwerpen, d. 1827 Antwerpen)

Willem (Guillaume-Jacques) Herreyns, Flemish painter and teacher. Because his work continued the tradition of 17th-century Flemish painting, he has long been considered as the last of the school of Rubens and opposed to innovative trends. However, although it is true that most of his religious works remained faithful to the traditionalist mainstream, his friendship with Andries Cornelis Lens and Jan Cardon, his teaching and his political ideas all show open-mindedness towards new ideas.

Portrait of Artist A. C. Lens

The painter Lens was an artist with an international reputation, a representative of the neo-classical ideal. In 1763, he became the director of the Antwerp Academ. He is portrayed by Willem Herreyns in an expressive, theatrical manner, in a flowing cloak, surrounded by the tools of his painter’s trade. This painting reveals Herreyns’ innovative approach to his portraits, something which cannot be said of his religious and historical commissions. He was in fact an opponent of Lens’ reforms.

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Supper at Emmaus

The painting replaced Otto van Veen’s Last Supper in the Venerable Chapel of the Antwerp Cathedral at the beginning of the 19th century. The artist donated this painting to the confraternity so that it could be incorporated in the new monumental altar. It is an attractive work, with its serene and classical structure, and catches the eye with the powerful, Rubensian expression of the figures.

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