Balthasar Paul Ommeganck appears in the register of the Antwerp Guild of St Luke in 1767 as an apprentice of the landscape painter Henri-Joseph Antonissen (1737-94), who gave him a taste for sketching from nature. His friendship with the landscape painter Simon Denis (1755-1813), who also attended Antonissen's studio, dates from this period.

Ommeganck was a talented and highly successful artist who gave a new breadth and vigour to landscape painting in the Low Countries. He developed a new expressive range combining the light found in the work of the Dutch Italianate painters of the 17th century with detailed observation of the hills and vales of the Ardennes. With great skill he resolved the conflict bet...