Leo Hortensius - the complete collection

4 GB 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 at the 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 40 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 Western art history covering the 15 th up to the beginning of the 20 th 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 clients 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 Leo at info@leohortensius.com or by telephone at +31-6-53372091 or +31-70-4400323.