(b Brussels, 26 Nov 1816; d Brussels, 2 Aug 1892). He trained with Louis Robbe (1806-87) and developed from an anecdotal and sentimental Romanticism towards a more realist style and subject-matter that foreshadowed Belgian naturalism. His work has much in common with that of the French animal painter Descamps. Stevens was a natural successor to the Flemish animal painters of the 17th century. He was the first popular Belgian realist to specialize in painting animals; such pictures as Brussels in the Morning (1848; Brussels, Mus. A. Mod.) feature a few straggly street dogs, and the Dog with the Bone (1854; Tournai, Mus. B.-A.) shows a dog sitting in a pile of rubbish, pathetically poised on a doorstep.
Part of the Stevens family
See the Abbreviations for further details.
