Cornelis Cels

Black-and-white picture of a portrait of Joan Cornelis van der Hoop from 1816.

Cornelis Cels, a painter of portraits and historical subjects, was born at Lierre in Brabant in 1778. He studied under A. Lens at Brussels, and then visited Paris and Italy, where he became a professor of the Academy of St. Luke. He went to Antwerp in 1807, and was appointed in 1820 to the professorship of drawing at Tournai, a post which he resigned in 1827. He subsequently settled at Brussels, where he resided till his death in 1859. His views were originally directed towards the antique, as may be seen from a study of his 'Cincinnatus' at Ghent, but he subsequently took the Pre-Raphaelites as his model, and in this style painted the 'Descent from the Cross,' for the high altar of St. Paul's at Antwerp, a picture in which the drawing is bold and fine, but the colouring cold, and the shadows too dark. 'The Baptism of St. Catharine,' painted in 1809, and now in the cathedral at Bruges, is a specimen of his earlier manner. His portraits were held in some estimation. In the Rotterdam Museum is a 'Portrait of Gysbert Karel, Count of Hogendorp.'

References

This article incorporates text from the article "CELS, Cornelis" in Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers by Michael Bryan, edited by Robert Edmund Graves and Sir Walter Armstrong, an 1886–1889 publication now in the public domain.

Persondata
Name	Cels, Cornelis
Alternative names
Short description	painter
Date of birth	1778
Place of birth	Lier, Belgium
Date of death	1859
Place of death	Brussels, Belgium