Joseph Henri François Van Lerius (23 December 1823, Boom, Antwerp – 29 February 1876, Mechelen) was a Belgian painter in the Romantic-Historical style.
In 1875, he was diagnosed with meningitis. The following year, he died in Mechelen, where he had gone for treatment.
Work
Van Lerius painted mythological and biblical scenes as well as portraits and genre pictures. Much of his work is didactic in nature.
In 1852 Queen Victoria bought his painting "Premier Né" (First Born), depicting a young couple with a baby. It is still on display at Windsor Castle. Perhaps his best-known work is "Lady Godiva", which was shown at the Antwerp Triennial Salon in 1870. It was purchased by London art dealer Henry Graves. Other paintings found their way to San Francisco and St. Petersburg. His "Cinderella and Her Sisters" oil painting was gifted to the Chillicothe & Ross County Public Library in 1909 by Mr. and Mrs. A. L. Fullerton.[2] The painting remains on display in the reference room at the Chillicothe & Ross County Public Library in Chillicothe, Ohio to this day.
