Description
THE RICH OEUVRE OF A MASTER IMITATOR
Leo Hortensius (1946) is an artist who worked both in Italy and in the Netherlands.
His first works of art date back more than 55 years ago. In the seventies he was
famous as a hyper realist. During those years his almost photographic paintings
were exhibited in different countries, such as the Art Expo in New York, where
several of his works were also sold as art posters.
Due to a chance encounter with some art collectors in 1981, his career took quite
a different direction. At the insistent request of one of them he replicated two
paintings of old master painters from the 17th century, that the art collector had
bought at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. This art collector had loaned both original
paintings to a well-known museum, but he preferred to keep a faithful replica in
one of his homes. Thus, the collector had the advantage of not only having his
investment safe in a museum, but atthe same time was able to enjoy it in his own
home. The works were replicated in such a lifelike fashion that more and more
collectors turned to Leo Hortensius. In the meantime, the artist discovered new
challenges as the creation of each reconstruction offered a true voyage of
discovery, since each great master had his own style, technique and specific use
of colours.
Due to several stock market crises, it has increasingly been people selling off their
works of art to offset financial problems, who often have an emotional attachment
to their works and do not like being left with empty walls. They very much
appreciate an exact reconstruction of the work of art sold as a memento
As a result, he was commissioned over more than 30 years to reconstruct a wide
variety of art works of well-known artists world-wide. Consequently, even the
average museum visitor could have his wishes fulfilled by having the painting of
his dreams created by Leo Hortensius.
Apart from all the commissions he received, he selected and created paintings of
artists, who he personally admired most. This collection of Personal Museum
Favourites grew quite considerably and led to the publication of a book and
supplement. They contain icons of the most famous painters from art history
covering the 15 up to the beginning of the 20 century.
This site is an art-historical tour of the oil paintings of a master imitator who has
mastered practically every technique to perfection. Therefore it may not come as a
surprise that one of his dients nick-named him ‘Magister Anonymus’. Leo
Hortensius is hopeful that in time his collection of favourite masters can be housed
together in a mansion or building of museum-like status where the unique and
complete oeuvre of the master can be admired for years to come.
For many years the collection was shown in a window in a building at the left hand
side of the Royal Palace in The Hague, The Netherlands.
If you are interested in this collection you can contact us!
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