The oeuvre of the autodidact Willem van Leeuwen from The Hague fits into the long tradition of Dutch still life painting. In addition to flowers, he prefers to paint still lifes, composed of books, vases, ginger jars, fruits and other objects. The influence of his teacher, Willy Fleur, is visible in this. However, Fleur mainly worked in a smooth-impressionist style, Van Leeuwen focuses – against the current of abstraction and non-figuration – on a realistic, more classical way of painting. In addition to being a member of Vereeniging Sint Lucas, Van Leeuwen is chairman of De Nederlandse Kunstkring in The Hague from 1953 to 1969.