Born in Mons in 1900, Léon Navez was part of the Belgian painters group Nervia (1928-1938), which is generally regarded as the Walloon counterpart of the Latem School expressionism. Navez studied at the academies of Mons and Brussels and was taught there by the realist Anto Carte, among others. After a stay of 5 years in Paris, he returned to Mons. Like Louis Buisseret, Navez was inspired by the painting of the Italian Renaissance. His oeuvre, which includes realistic, intimate portraits, still lifes and figure pieces, thus ties in with the New Objectivity, a movement that manifested itself in painting throughout Western Europe around 1930.