Willem van Leen, who lived from 1753 to 1825, was a Dutch painter who specialized in flower paintings, best known for his decorative work for mantelpieces and overdoors.  After training with his father Jan van Leen as a child in his hometown of Dordrecht, Willem travelled to Paris at the age of twenty, where he studied flower painting for three years.  From this point, van Leen split his time working between Holland and Paris, receiving important commissions such as designing wall decorations in the Pavlovsk Palace in St. Petersburg for the Grand Duchess of Russia.

Van Leen settled in Delfshaven in the Netherlands from 1806, where he worked as a councilor from 1811 until his death in 1825.  His work is notable for its delicateness a...