Born in Oostakker, a village near Gent, Joseph Paelinck first studied at the Gent Drawing Academy. In 1802 he won the academy prize, enabling him to leave for Paris. There he enrolled in David's (q.v.) workshop, where he studied until 1806 before returning to Belgium. In 1808 he left for Rome and stayed there through 1812. During this period he regularly sent his paintings to exhibitions in Gent, thus establishing his reputation. After the fall of Napoleon, the Kingdom of the Netherlands was created in 1815, which included the present-day countries of Belgium and the Netherlands, and King William I ascended the throne. Paelinck soon was inundated with official commissions, portraits as well as historical, mythological, and religious subjects. He moved from Gent to Brussels, where a second court was established in addition to the royal family's principal residence in The Hague. His most famous paintings, La belle Anthia (1820, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Gent) and La toilette de Psyche (1823, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), recall David's style during his years of exile in Brussels. At the time of David's death in 1825, ideas and taste had significantly evolved. The new bourgeoisie in power sought other subjects in another style, and Paelinck's neoclassical works became undesirable and were replaced by a more romantic art. After the break-up of the kingdom and Belgium's independence in 1830, he even contemplated going into exile because his liaison with the Dutch court was viewed with hostility in the new Belgium. Having outlived his own painting style, Paelinck died in Brussels in 1839 at age fifty-eight.
