A lovely winter scene of figures on a frozen lake by Alexis De Leeuw. Two figures with a horse drawn sleigh can be seen in the foreground about to cross the ice. Other figures are depicted ahead of them making their way towards a windmill. Meanwhile, a man carries a sack of grain towards a building shown on the right side of the painting.

Alexis De Leeuw was a Belgian landscape and animal painter who was born in Bruges in 1822. By 1858 he had emigrated to England where he found work as a Drawing Master at Grange Court School, Chigwell in Essex. After leaving the school, he set himself up as a professional artist living at 61 Greek Street, Soho from 1860 and gained work by advertising his services in the London Directories.

He began exhibiting at the Royal Academy in 1864 with a painting entitled ‘Children gathering wood’. He also exhibited at the British Institution, Suffolk Street and the Royal Hibernian Academy. In 1865, he married Rosalie Gregoire who was from France and they lived at Greek Street until after 1875 when they moved to 77 Newman Street. De Leeuw spent his final years at 44 Wilmot-road, Leyton Essex where he died on 11 November, 1900.

De Leeuw’s style and subject matter took influence from the Dutch artist Frederik Marinus Kruseman (1816-1882). However, he made his name specialising in winter landscapes with figures usually containing horses and dogs and showed a great talent for snow scenes and winter sports. He occasionally painted pastoral landscapes; however it is for his winter scenes that he is perhaps best known. Examples of his work can be found at the Atkinson Art Gallery, Bowes Museum, New Art Gallery Walsall, the Witt Library and the Whitaker Collection, Australia.

© Benton Fine Art