Jan De Leener (1873-1944) migrated to Australia from Belgium in the 1890s. He painted widely around Sydney and in NSW country areas. He worked in water colour and produced a milder vision of the Australian landscape than some of his contempories such as Heysen or McCubbin. He travelled back to Europe and also through the Middle East producing a number of works from this period. Curiously, he was employed for some while as an official artist for NSW State Rail to produce artworks to be hung in carriages. He died in Marrickville in 1944. His work is light and easy on the eye and curiously impressionistic. He appears not to have been influenced by the more assertive nationalism of the Heidelberg painters. There are no bronzed shearers or stockman cracking whips - Just gentle renditions of the Australian bush as he found it