# Portrait of Artist A. C. Lens [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [HERREYNS, Willem]() - Date: 1751-1800 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 116 x 96 cm ## Commentary Portrait of Artist A. C. Lens - Oil on canvas, 116 x 96 cm Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp 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. ## Related artworks - [Supper at Emmaus]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()