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Juliaan de Vriendt (Ghent, August 20, 1842 - Old God, April 20, 1935) was a Belgian painter and politician. He first attended the academy of Ghent, later he studied at that of Antwerp, with Nicaise de Keyser, among others. He was very successful with his religious and historical paintings from a very early age. In addition, he is considered one of the best portrait painters of his time. Together with his brother, Albrecht De Vriendt (1843-1900), who was also a painter, he traveled to Italy in 1880. They also went to Palestine, Syria and Egypt. This study trip had a major impact on the work of the two brothers. From 1886 to 1894 he was a teacher at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts in Antwerp. In 1900 or 1903 he succeeded his brother Albrecht as director of the academy of Antwerp, which position he held until 1923. As a painter he, like his brother, worked in the tradition of Hendrik Leys. He first emerged in 1864 with the work Magdalena Buried by the Angels. Another well-known work was The Raising of the Daughter of Jairus, of which this work was probably a preliminary study. He excelled as a portraitist, in religious and historical scenes and in monumental murals, such as those in the Antwerp courthouse (1891) and in the Bruges town hall (1904-1905). There are also works by him in the Senate and in the old Justice Palace of Antwerp.
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