Historical painting in the 17th-century style was continued in the 18th century with Guillaume Herricx (1682-1745), Jacques van Roore (1686-1747), Maarten Geeraerts (1707-1791) and Pieter Verhaeghen (1728-1811), painter of the Feast of Belshazzar (Brussels) and the Presentation in the Temple (Ghent Museum, 1767).

Historical painting was also part of the repertory of classical artists such as Andries Cornelis Lens (1739-1822) of Antwerp, who visited Rome, was much taken with the ideas of Mengs and Winckelmann and returned to become the leader of a school (Ariadne on Naxos, Brussels Museum). Flemish painting lost its originality and became thoroughly cosmopolitan.

Among the landscape painters and animal painters were Jean Demarne (1754-1829) and Balthasar Ommeganck (1755-1826). Among genre painters were B. van den Bossche (1681-1715), Jan Jozef Horemans the Elder (1682-1759) and his son Jan Jozef Horemans the Younger (1700-1776), who continued the tradition of interiors.

Holland

Gérard de Lairesse (1640-1711), from Liège, was well known in The Hague (Mars, Venus and Cupid, Amsterdam) and inaugurated the classical reaction, and Adriaen van der Werff (1659-1722), Willem van Mieris (1662-1747), son of Frans van Mieris, and Constantin Netscher (1668-1722), son of Caspar Netscher, painted historical and mythological compositions. Jan Maurits Quinkhard (1688-1722) painted portraits in the 17th-century manner. Cornelis Troost (1697-1750) is reminiscent of Jan Steen and was a competent engraver. Julius Quinkhard (1736-1776) painted portraits and Thierry Langendyk specialised in battle scenes. The landscape painters were J. Kompe, Jan Ekels the Elder, Isaak Ouwater and Dirk Jan van der Laer. Still life was represented by Jan van Huysum and Rachel Ruysch.