• 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.
