Andries Cornelis Lens (1739 – 1822)

• Was a Flemish painter, illustrator, art theoretician and art educator.
• Andries Cornelis Lens was the son of Corneille Lens and Magdalena Slaets.
• His father was a flower painter and gilder who had moved to Antwerp at a young age.
• Andries Cornelis Lens started his artistic training with the painter Carel Ykens the Younger.
• After Ykens died in 1753 he continued his studies with Balthasar Beschey.
• At the same time Lens studied at the Antwerp Academy where he was a precocious student who obtained several first prizes for life drawing, winning the second prize at the age of 15 and the first prize at the age of 17.
• Lens became a director and teacher at the Antwerp Academy in 1763.
• Lens died on 30 March 1822 in Brussels.

• His pupils included Jean-Pierre Borrekens, Cornelis Cels, Pierre Joseph Célestin François and Jacob van Strij.

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