François-Joseph Navez was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 neo-classical painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

.

A pupil of Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...

, he spent five years in Italy between 1817 and 1822. Between 1835 and 1862 he was the director of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts

Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts

The Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels is an art school, founded in 1711.The faculty and alumni of ARBA include some of the most famous names in Belgian painting, sculpture, and architecture: James Ensor, Rene Magritte, and Paul Delvaux...

 in Brussels.

He was a very successful portrait painter. He also painted many mythological and historic subjects.

The orientalist painter Jean-François Portaels

Jean-François Portaels

Jean-François Portaels was a Belgian orientalist painter and director of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.- Life :...

was his pupil (and son-in-law).