Hendrik Frans Schaefels was born in 1827 in Antwerp. He was a famous artist especially for his naval paintings depicting historic naval battles. He was a pupil at the Antwerp Academy of Landscape, of architect Jan Baptiste de Jonghe and of marine painter Jacob Jacobs. He was later a pupil and collaborator of Jan Michiel Ruyten, and at just seventeen one of his paintings was exhibited at the triennial exhibition in Antwerp. Hendrik Frans Schaefels's creations reflect the romantic mood of the mid-century, when the Belgian masters were successful with their history paintings. Schaefels in his dramatic naval battles that evoked the Battle of Trafalgar or episodes of the wars between England and the Dutch Republic exhibit neo-Baroque drafts ...