Lot 759: Willem van Leen (Dordrecht 1753-1825 Delft)

Willem van Leen (Dordrecht 1753-1825 Delft)
Four portrait medallions flanked by putti
all signed and dated 'Wυm van Leen. Fυt 1793' (lower right)
tempera on canvas, unframed
21¼ x 38 5/8 in. (53.9 x 98 cm.)
a set of four (4)

Anonymous sale; Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 7 March 1925, lots 76-79.

Dutch-born Willem van Leen went to study in Paris in 1773, where he stayed there for three years and became friendly with Corneille van Spanedonck and Piat-Joseph Sauvage. After his return to Rotterdam, he travelled to Paris again in 1787 but left France at the outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789. During his Dutch period, he exclusively painted still lives of flowers and fruit, more rarely miniatures.