(b Liège, 5 Nov. 1735; d Liège, 25 Feb. 1805). Flemish painter. He travelled a good deal and a visit to Holland in 1773 gave him a love for 17th-century Dutch genre painting, which influenced the lively scenes of contemporary life in which he specialized (Brigands Dividing Booty, c.1780, Met. Mus., New York). A supporter of the French Revolution and an anticleric, he was involved in the destruction of Liège's cathedral and the removal of works of art to France after it annexed the city in 1794. He wrote treatises on drawing (1772) and colour (1782).