Remigius van Leemput, known in England simply as Remee, (19 December 1607 – 4 November 1675, aged 67) was a Flemish portrait painter,

copyist A copyist is a person who makes duplications of the same thing. The modern use of the term is mainly confined to music copyists, who are employed by the music industry to produce neat copies from a composer or arranger's manuscript. However, the ...

, collector and art dealer mainly active in England.Richard Jeffree. "Leemput, Remi van." Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 23 April 2024 Together with another Flemish master painter from Antwerp, George Geldorp, he was the key collaborator of

Anthony van Dyck Sir Anthony van Dyck (; ; 22 March 1599 – 9 December 1641) was a Flemish Baroque painting, Flemish Baroque artist who became the leading court painter in England after success in the Spanish Netherlands and Italy. The seventh child of ...

during van Dyck's final stay in London.Justin Davies and James Innes-Mulraine, ''Anthony van Dyck in London: newly discovered documents'', The Burlington Magazine, 164, March 2022, pp. 254-259

Life

Van Leemput was born in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

where he was baptized on 18 December 1607. He trained in Antwerp where he was enrolled in the local

Guild of Saint Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was iden ...

as a pupil of Frans van Lanckvelt the Elder in the guild year commencing on 18 September 1618 and ending on 18 September 1619.Ph. Rombouts and Th. van Lerius, De liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche sint Lucasgilde
Volume 1, Antwerp, 1864, p. 559, 564 and 664 Van Lanckvelt was a relatively obscure painter who was also the master of

Theodoor Rombouts Theodoor Rombouts (2 July 1597 – 14 September 1637) was a Flanders, Flemish painter who is mainly known for his Caravaggism, Caravaggesque genre painting, genre scenes depicting lively dramatic gatherings as well as religiously themed works. ...

and Peeter Sion. He was admitted as a master in the Antwerp Guild in the guild year commencing on 18 September 1628 and ending on 18 September 1629. He married in Antwerp on 2 March 1630 to Anna van Bavelgem. Their son Johannes Remigius (known as Giovanni Remigio) (c. 1638/40-1695) later became a copyist in Rome while another son Anton (Antonio) (c. 1642 - 1667) worked as a painter in Rome. Their daughter, Mary, also became a painter and married Thomas, son of Robert Streeter, the Serjeant-Painter. He is believed to have moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

around 1632.Remee van Leemput
at the

Netherlands Institute for Art History The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

There is speculation that he followed van Dyck to England in 1632. He and another Flemish painter George Geldorp who was like him a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke were very close associates of

in London. Geldorp is believed to have been more involved on the commercial side by assisting van Dyck with the sale of copies of his works and frames. Van Leemput was likely more involved in the production of copies of van Dyck's portrait paintings including full-size and reduced copies. He appears to have been the most prolific copyist of van Dyck's works. King Charles I commissioned a copy of van Dyck's '' Portrait of Charles I and Henrietta Maria with their two eldest children, Prince Charles and Princess Mary'' from van Leemput through his Lord Chamberlain, Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke. He later also copied works of other painters such as

Peter Lely Sir Peter Lely (14 September 1618 – 30 November 1680) was a painter of Dutch origin whose career was nearly all spent in England, where he became the dominant portrait painter to the court. He became a naturalised British subject and was kn ...

. Van Leemput is said to have claimed that he could copy Lely better than Lely could himself. He may have been an assistant of Lely at some point. After the death of his first wife, he married in London on an unknown date Anna Maria Geldorp, daughter of his associate Georg Geldorp. Van Leemput gained a prominent position in the London art world. He became an art dealer and a major collector of paintings and drawings. After the execution of

Charles I of England Charles I (19 November 1600 – 30 January 1649) was King of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland, and Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland from 27 March 1625 until Execution of Charles I, his execution in 1649. Charles was born ...

in 1649, his art collection was broken up and sold off in order to repay the debtors of the former king. Van Leemput was active as a buyer of artworks sold off from the royal collection. He acquired 35 paintings and sculptures from the sale of the collection over a period of six months. He purchased works from

Titian Tiziano Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), Latinized as Titianus, hence known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italian Renaissance painter, the most important artist of Renaissance Venetian painting. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. Ti ...

Giorgione Giorgio Barbarelli da Castelfranco (; 1470s – 17 September 1510), known as Giorgione, was an Italian painter of the Venetian school during the High Renaissance, who died in his thirties. He is known for the elusive poetic quality of his work, ...

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was an Italian Renaissance painter who was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Renaissance, who was responsible for som ...

and Andrea del Sarto. He was able to acquire the famous equestrian portrait by van Dyck of '' Charles I with M. de St Antoine''. He tried to sell the painting in Antwerp but was unsuccessful because his asking price of 1,500 guineas was too high. It is possible that he was in fact trying to sell a copy of the portrait he had made himself. After the Restoration in 1660, the painting was still with him. It was recovered from him for Charles II through legal proceedings. His son Giovanni Remigio later became a copyist in Rome, and his daughter Mary also became an artist and married Thomas Streater, the brother of the artist Robert Streater. Remigius van Leemput died in London on 4 November 1675 and was buried on 9 November 1675 at St. Paul's, Covent Garden. His extensive collection of works of art was sold at Somerset House on 14 May 1677.

Work

Remigius van Leemput is known for his original works as well as for his small-scale copies after van Dyck, Lely and others. He made a series of portraits of 14 "Beauties" after van Dyck, Lely and Samuel Cooper. The series are bust portraits based on (often full-length) portraits by these other painters. They were recorded in the Bathing Room at Windsor Castle in 1710, 1720 and 1733. The series remained at Windsor Castle throughout the 18th Century and 13 of them reappeared in the Queen's Bedchamber in 1790 to 1819 and are now in the Royal Collection. They are painted on panel and range in size from 23 to 39 centimetres by 18 to 31 centimetres. He also made a copy of Lely's double portrait of Henry Hyde, Viscount Cornbury and Theodosia, Viscountess Cornbury. In 1667 Charles II commissioned van Leemput to make a small copy of the wall painting by

Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; ; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a German-Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He ...

representing Henry VII,

Elizabeth of York Elizabeth of York (11 February 1466 – 11 February 1503) was List of English royal consorts, Queen of England from her marriage to King Henry VII of England, Henry VII on 18 January 1486 until her death in 1503. She was the daughter of King E ...

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is known for his Wives of Henry VIII, six marriages and his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. ...

and

Jane Seymour Jane Seymour (; 24 October 1537) was Queen of England as the third wife of King Henry VIII from their marriage on 30 May 1536 until her death the next year. She became queen following the execution of Henry's second wife, Anne Boleyn, who was ...

at the

Palace of Whitehall The Palace of Whitehall – also spelled White Hall – at Westminster was the main residence of the English monarchs from 1530 until 1698, when most of its structures, with the notable exception of Inigo Jones's Banqueting House of 1622, ...

in London. Van Leemput received a fee of £150 for the copy. Van Leemput painted another copy of the mural in 1669 (

Petworth House Petworth House is a late 17th-century Grade I listed English country house, country house in the parish of Petworth, West Sussex, England. It was built in 1688 by Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset, and altered in the 1870s to the desi ...

Petworth Petworth is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Chichester (district), Chichester District of West Sussex, England. It is located at the junction of the A272 road, A272 east–west road from Heathfield, East Sussex, Heat ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

). The two copies are the only records of Holbein's entire composition, destroyed by fire in 1698 after a maid left her washing to dry before an open fire. Holbein's original draft cartoon for the left half of the composition is in the

National Portrait Gallery, London The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) is an art gallery in London that houses a collection of portraits of historically important and famous British people. When it opened in 1856, it was arguably the first national public gallery in the world th ...

Portraits

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Leemput, Remigius van Flemish Baroque painters Flemish portrait painters Flemish art dealers Artists from Antwerp 1607 births 1675 deaths Art collectors from Antwerp Belgian expatriates in England