" l'atelier du sculpteur", Léo van AKEN, 1883

Oil on oak panel representing a seated model, posing for a sculptor in the process of making a statue of the Virgin, in the style of the end of the 15th century. Around them a motley set of accessories, and a chest full of tools. Signed lower left Leo van AKEN, dated 1883. History painter, born in Antwerp in 1857, died in this city in 1904. He worked with Polydore Beaufaux, and excelled in the painting of historical subjects, but also in scenes interior, and the daily life of the people in the spirit of Struys, one of the main Belgian representatives of naturalist painting. Mention at the Paris Salon in 1898, he obtained the 1st class medal for "human misery", preserved in the National Museum of Catalonia.