# Sebastiaan Leerse in his Gallery [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [FRANCKEN, Frans II]() - Date: 1601-1650 - Technique: Oil on panel, 77 x 114 cm ## Commentary Apart from paintings dealing with social customs and mores, there was a great demand from contemporary patrons of the arts for decorative canvases. An attractive example is provided by the large number of art gallery paintings, a specialism which arose in the 17th century, in which the patron is portrayed in the midst of his collection, and in which the artist expresses the ideas and attitudes of his time. Frans Francken II, who painted the Antwerp merchant Sebastiaan Leerse in his Gallery together with his second wife and their son, was a master in this field. Paintings of this kind have both aesthetic and documentary value, as the depicted paintings could largely be identified. ## Related artworks - [Allegory on the Abdication of Emperor Charles V in Brussels, 25 October 1555,]() - [An Antique Dealer's Gallery]() - [Arcadia: a Pastoral Landscape]() - [Art Room \(detail\)]() - [Art Room]() - [Ballroom Scene at a Court in Brussels]() - [Christ in the Garden of Olives]() - [Croesus Showing his Riches to Solon]() - [Crucifixion of St Andrew]() - [Feast of Esther]() - [Supper at the House of Burgomaster Rockox]() - [The Baptism of Christ \(detail\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()