Victor Honoré Janssens (1658-1736) - La Mort de César

This Flemish classic painting by Victor Honoré Janssens depicts the death of Caesar. This oil on canvas is signed lower right on the sculpture base, V. Janssens. This portraitist and history painter, born in 1658, was the representative of the classicism of Flemish painting. Formed in a Brussels studio in 1675, he lived in Italy from 1678 to 1689. A few years in Rome helped him to assimilate the classicism of Roman painting which his works are imbued. On his return to Italy, he joined as master the “Guilde des peintres de Bruxelles” and work exclusively for his hometown. Far better than his contemporaries, Zeger Jacob van Helmont, grand-son of the famous Mattheus, and Jan van Orley, Janssens creates large compositions, balanced and light, well drawn and with bright colors for the churches of Brussels and the hearing rooms of the City Hall which were destroyed after the bombing in 1695. He made the models of a series devoted to the events of the history of the Duchy of Brabant commissioned on the occasion of the enthronement of Charles VI as Duke of Brabant in 1717 and made another series on the life of Caesar, reflecting his style imbued with classicism Roman.