A COUNTRY'S GLORY by Jean-Léon Huens

A LITTLE HISTORY OF BELGIUM illustrated by the postcard art of the Belgian draftsman-illustrator JEAN-LEON HUENS (1921-1982) issued by Publisher HISTORIA between 1949 and 1961.

I was a young boy in the sixties and I still remember that those almost magical but historical correct drawn postcarts made an indelible impression on me in the classroom during the history hour.

But who was Jean-Leon HUENS?

In 2002, twenty years after his death Huens was granted a HALL OF FAME AWARD by the NEW YORK SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS.

Sadly nobody in Belgium paid attention to that fact.

An excerpt out of

Jean-Leon Huens
2002 Hall of Fame Inductee
by
Howard E. Paine
Former Art Director
National Geographic

" Huens painted with what he called “water color pencils,” which enabled him to render detail with great precision, later brushing a slight wash of clear water over the areas to blend the colors. He worked from photographs of models in various poses and costumes, often posing himself. His wife Monique—researcher; correspondent, translator, critic and photographer—assisted him throughout his career.

Jean-Leon Huens was born December 1, 1921, in Melsbrock, Belgium. He attended the institute of St. Luc and completed his studies at the Academy of La Cambre, in Brussels. At the end of World War II, while still in his twenties, Huens began illustrating children’s books for publishers such as Casterman, Marabout, Desclee-DeBrouwer and Durendel.

In 1946 Huens and his brother Etienne founded the Historia Society, with the aim of popularizing Belgian history through more than 400 paintings—village scenes, battle scenes, coronations, hangings, and portraits of heroes such as Gerardus Mercator. Huens’ carefully researched paintings were lithographed in full color, each 3.75 x 5.75 inches, and were offered as premiums with packages of tea, chocolate, spices, and biscuits. Like nineteenth-century trade cards, the Historia Society cards are prized collectibles today....

... Huens’ Christmas cards throughout the years, painted in full color, showed Father Time in a wide variety of styles and situations, giving us a peek at Huens overflowing wit and humor. This made him the perfect artist for a Time-Life Books series called The Enchanted World, a set of books about wizards, merlins, magic and mystery. Huens completed but one painting, a promotional piece to help get the series marketed, before he died suddenly on May 24, 1982, in Benissa, Spain.
In his 60 years, Jean-Leon Huens had seen his work heralded throughout Europe, amd had successfully expanded his audience to the United States. Now, 20 years after his death, the Society of Illustrators pays tribute to Jean-Leon Huens by inducting him into its Hall of Fame."