Jef Leempoels or Joseph Leempoels was a Belgian painter who was renowned in his lifetime for his society and official portraits as well as his genre scenes and symbolist compositions. He worked in other genres such as still lifes and landscapes. His work ignored modernist developments and his style has variously been described as academic, realist and symbolist.
Jef Leempoels was born in Brussels. He started painting at the age of 19 when he commenced his studies at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. There he was a student of leading Belgian painters Jean-François Portaels and Joseph Stallaert, both rather academic history painters who were known for their Orientalist and Classicist paintings.
At a young age Leempoels was able to establish an international reputation and he won several international distinctions. In Paris he won an honorable mention at the 1893 salon and a silver medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1900.
He won a gold medal at the Antwerp salon in 1894 and exhibited at the Féderation Nationale des Artistes of Belgium starting from 1897. He was awarded a gold medal in St. Louis, the United States in 1903 for his painting Destiny and Humanity (private collection, château de Reynel, France). This painting, which is also referred to as The Hands, because of the many hands in the foreground travelled throughout the US and was exhibited at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. It attracted a lot of attention and there was intense speculation in the media about how the painting should be interpreted. The painting was also exhibited in Munich, Brussels, Vienna and Paris.
Leempoels further won medals in Vienna and Buenos Aires (Grand Prix at the 'Exposicion del Centenario' in 1910).
The artist was also honoured by the Belgian government which made him a Knight in the Order of Leopold and the French government which made him a Knight of the Légion d’Honneur.
Leempoels was patronized by members of the aristocracy and high society in Belgium, France, the United States, Argentina and other countries because of his highly prized society portraits. The Belgian monarchy and government also became patrons of the artist. Leempoels painted portraits of the Belgian kings Leopold II and Albert I. The Belgian prime minister Frans Schollaert asked him to draw a death-bed portrait of King Leopold II for the Belgian government’s archives. He also painted portraits of Franz Joseph I of Austria, Victor Emmanuel III of Italy and other monarchs as well as of prominent members of society.
Leempoels was a member of the Société des Beaux-Arts de Paris and a correspondent of the Academy of Fine Arts of Milan.
To service his international clientele and paint his society portraits on site, Jef Leempoels maintained at various times throughout his career studios in Ixelles (Brussels), Paris, New York and Buenos Aires.