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The painter Lens was an artist with an international reputation, a representative of the neo-classical ideal. In 1763, he became the director of the Antwerp Academ. He is portrayed by Willem Herreyns in an expressive, theatrical manner, in a flowing cloak, surrounded by the tools of his painter's trade. This painting reveals Herreyns' innovative approach to his portraits, something which cannot be said of his religious and historical commissions. He was in fact an opponent of Lens' reforms.
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