Jef Marie Thomas Lambeaux (1852-1908) was one of the most important and controversial Belgian sculptors of the late nineteenth century, whose muscular, sensually charged figures brought the Rubensian tradition of dynamic Flemish figuration into the modern era. Born in Antwerp, Lambeaux studied at the Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts, where he received the foundational training that would shape his mature practice. His first work, War, was exhibited in 1871.

Lambeaux produced a series of humorous groups leading up to The Kiss of 1881, generally considered his masterpiece and among the most beloved Belgian sculptures of its era. He created a number of fountain pieces and numerous busts of important Belgian political figures over the course of his career, and his public commissions gave him a considerable civic presence in Belgium during the years of the country's late nineteenth-century artistic flowering.

He was best known, however, for his erotic works, which drew a fair amount of controversy in the nineteenth century. His most ambitious project, The Human Passions (Les Passions Humaines / De Menselijke Driften), a monumental marble relief begun in the 1880s and eventually installed in a pavilion designed for it by the celebrated Belgian architect Victor Horta, was publicly bashed over its content, deemed lustful and improper by much of Belgian society. The pavilion was closed only days after opening in 1899, and a wall was eventually built to hide the sculpture from public view for many decades. Regardless of the controversy, Lambeaux is remembered today for his sensually evocative style, and The Human Passions has been restored and is again visible to the public in the Cinquantenaire Park in Brussels.

Lambeaux received the Order of Leopold and other important recognitions during his career. His sculptures are held in major Belgian museums, where they continue to be appreciated as bold and unapologetically physical statements within the late nineteenth-century European sculptural tradition.