Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Van Leemput, Remigius
VAN LEEMPUT, REMIGIUS (1609?–1675), painter, born at Antwerp about 1609, was received into the guild of St. Luke there in 1628–9. He came to England in Charles I's reign, and among other works for that king he made a small copy in oils of the famous painting by Holbein at Whitehall of Henry VII, Henry VIII, and their queens, which was afterwards destroyed by fire; Van Leemput's copy is now at Hampton Court. He was one of the purchasers at the sale of King Charles's collection, and among his purchases was the great picture of Charles I on horseback, by Van Dyck (now at Windsor), which was recovered from him with some difficulty at the Restoration. M. Remy or Remée, as he was usually called by his contemporaries, was a well-known and skilful copyist of pictures. He copied many portraits by Van Dyck, and told Sir Peter Lely that he could copy his portraits better than Lely could himself. He copied Raphael's ‘Galatea’ for the Earl of Pomfret at Easton Neston. Van Leemput died in 1675, and on 9 Nov. was buried in St. Paul's, Covent Garden, where a son of his, Charles Van Leemput, had been interred on 19 Sept. 1651. His daughter also practised painting, and married Thomas Streater, a nephew of Robert Streater [q. v.] Van Leemput had a well-chosen collection of pictures and other works of art, which were advertised for sale at Somerset House on 14 May 1677 (London Gazette).
[Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting, ed. Wornum; Bathoe's Cat. of James II's Collection; Law's Cat. of the Pictures at Hampton Court; Rombouts and Lerius's Liggeren der St. Lukas Gild te Antverpen; Vertue's Diaries (Brit. Mus. Addit. MSS. 23071, &c.).]