LEEMPUT, Remigius van - b. 1607 Antwerpen, d. 1675 London

Flemish (possibly French) painter, copyist, collector and dealer, active in England. In 1635 he was living in the newly developed area of Covent Garden, London; at that time he was closely associated with Anthony van Dyck and presumably assisted in his studio. Through his varied activities, van Leemput became a leading figure in the London art world, and he assembled a major collection of paintings and drawings. He bought extensively when Charles I’s collections were sold in 1649-51; his purchases included works attributed to Titian, Giorgione, Correggio and Andrea del Sarto. Later he acquired the great equestrian portrait by van Dyck of Charles I with M. de St Antoine (British Royal Collection), which he apparently attempted to sell in Antwerp but asked too high a price. It was still with him at the Restoration in 1660, when it was recovered from him for Charles II.

Henry VII, Elizabeth of York, Henry VIII, and Jane Seymour

Van Leemput made a copy of Holbein’s mural of the Tudor dynasty painted in 1537 (much praised by van Mander) on the instructions of Charles II. The picture was later destroyed in the Whitehall fire of 1698. The picture showed full-length, life-size figures of Henry VII, founder of the dynasty, and his son Henry VIII, together with their wives Elizabeth of York and Jane Seymour. The picture shows them standing in an ornate Renaissance-style hall around a stone block, the inscription on which extols the virtues of the two kings.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 5 minutes):

Camille Saint-Saens: H�nri VIII, Scene and Henry’s aria