_J. L. Dyckmans_ (Flemish: 1811-1888).
Josef Laurens Dyckmans, a pupil of Wappers, was for some time
Professor of the Academy of Painting at Antwerp.
"A blind old man is standing in the sunshine by a church door: before
him is a young girl, who is holding out her hand for alms to the
passers-by; an old lady coming from the church is feeling in her pocket
for a sou; some other figures are seen in the porch at their devotions
before a crucifix. Painted at Antwerp, signed _J. Dyckmans_, 1853"
(Official Catalogue). "The picture is painted in a tone of colour
exceedingly low, but the whole is worked to an extreme finish; the
heads in fact are elaborated with a care such as Denner's pictures
show. In these days of light and glowing harmonies the eye is at once
struck with the abstinence from colour which the artist has made a
cardinal principle in the execution of his work" (_Art Journal_, July
1864). This picture was presented by Miss Jane Clark, who paid 900
guineas for it.