had two daughters and a son. The family Leys initially lived in the Hobokenstraat. In 1855 Leys had a more spacious house built in the street, which now bears his name, and was then called the Statiestraat. From 1857 to 1861 he worked on murals to decorate the dining room of his house. Leys became in 1852 member of the Kunstverbond or Cercle Artistique, Litéraire et Scientifique d’Anvers ('Art Association'), a mainly French-speaking society of intellectuals and artists. Its honorary chairman was the liberal mayor of Antwerp Jan Frans Loos. In the same year a heated discussion had started about the reform of the Antwerp Academy after its director Gustaf Wappers had resigned from his post following political pressure. The Kunstverbond championed profound changes to the organisation of the Antwerp Academy. Leys' friend and fellow member of the Kunstverbond Joseph Lies authored a plan that called for the separation of the artistic and administrative functions in the Academy and for ending the practice of appointing the director for life. Leys, who was also member of the city council, defended the plan in the city council, but it was defeated. Leys gained a considerable reputation at home and abroad and worked for an international clientele from Germany, France, England and Russia. He was made a knight in the French Legion of Honour and was awarded the Order of St. Michael by the king of Bavaria. Leys won a gold medal at the International Exhibition in Paris in 1855 for his historical painting The Mass of Berthal de Haze (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels). Critics praised the high quality of his reconstruction of the past through costumes and architecture, the realistic poses and facial expressions, the rigorous drawing and the brightness of the colours. Leys won another gold medal in Paris in 1867. In 1862 Leys was created a baron by the Belgian King Leopold I. At the request of the Belgian government, which supported the development of history painting in the country, the Antwerp city administration gave Leys in 1861 a commission to decorate the interior of the restored Antwerp Town Hall. He was asked to paint over a period of 10 years 10 monumental murals depicting key events in the city's history. Four of the murals along with 11 portraits of historical rulers of Belgium were completed between 1863 and 1869, the year in which Leys died.