Marten Jozef Geeraerts

Marten Jozef Geeraerts (1707–1791) was a Flemish historical painter. Born at Antwerp, he was intended for the law, and studied in the Jesuits' College. Preferring art, however, he became a pupil of Abraham Godijn, and was made free of the Guild of St. Luke in 1731. In 1741 he became one of the six directors of the Academy of Antwerp, who filled that office gratuitously. He died at Antwerp in 1791. He excelled in grisaille painting in imitation of bas-reliefs, of which there are the following examples:
Between 1756 and 1760 he produced nine grisaille tromp-l’œil paintings for the abbey church in Cambrai which later became the Cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce.