Gustave Franciscus De Smet (21 January 1877 – 8 October 1943) was a Belgian painter. Together with
Constant Permeke
Constant Permeke (; 31 July 1886 – 4 January 1952) was a Belgian painter and sculptor who is considered the leading figure of Flemish expressionism.
Biography
Permeke was born in Antwerp but when he was six years old the family moved to Ost ...
and
Frits Van den Berghe
Frits Van den Berghe (3 April 1883 – 23 September 1939) was a Belgian expressionist and surrealist painter and illustrator.
Biography
He was born in Ghent, where his father was the Librarian at the University of Ghent.[Expressionism
Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...]
. His younger brother, , also became a painter.
Biography
He was born in
Ghent
Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...
. His father, Jules, was a set decorator and photographer. Both Gustave and his brother began working in their father's studio, then attended the
Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where they studied under
Jean Delvin.
[Brief biography](_blank)
from ''Dictionnaire des peintres belges'' @ Belgian Art Links. Unlike Léon, Gustave was considered to be an indifferent student.
In 1908, he and his wife followed Léon to the artists' colony in
Sint-Martens-Latem
Sint-Martens-Latem () is a municipality located in the Belgian province of East Flanders, in Belgium. The municipality comprises the towns of Deurle and Sint-Martens-Latem proper. In 2021, Sint-Martens-Latem had a total population of 8,285. The t ...
.
There, they initially came under the influence of
Luminism and the painter
Emile Claus
Emile Claus (27 September 1849 – 14 June 1924) was a Belgian painter.
Life
Emile Claus was born on 27 September 1849, in Sint-Eloois-Vijve, a village in West Flanders (Belgium), at the banks of the river Lys. Emile was the twelfth child in ...
, who lived in nearby
Astene. At the beginning of World War I, he and his family joined his friend, Van den Berghe, and fled to the Netherlands. From 1914 to 1922, they moved about, visiting and staying at the art colonies in Amsterdam,
Laren and
Blaricum
Blaricum () is a municipality and village in the province of North Holland, the Netherlands. It is part of the region of Gooiland and part of the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area (Metropoolregio Amsterdam). It is known for its many monumental farm buil ...
.
His meeting with the Expressionist painter
Henri Le Fauconnier
Henri Victor Gabriel Le Fauconnier (July 5, 1881 – December 25, 1946) was a French Cubist painter born in Hesdin. Le Fauconnier was seen as one of the leading figures among the Montparnasse Cubists. At the 1911 Salon des Indépendants Le Fauco ...
marked a turning point in his style which, up until then, owed much to
Cubism
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
.
[Biographical notes](_blank)
@ the De Valk Lexicon kunstenaars Laren-Blaricum.
He returned to Belgium in 1922, but continued to move frequently, usually in the company of his friends Van den Berghe and Permeke, beginning in
Ostend
Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerk ...
, then to
Bachte-Maria-Leerne
Deinze () is a city and a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders. It comprises the city of Deinze, and the towns of Astene, Bachte-Maria-Leerne, Gottem, Grammene, Hansbeke, Landegem, Meigem, Merendree, Nevele, Petegem-aan-de-Leie, ...
and
Afsnee
Afsnee is a village in the Belgian province of East Flanders. It is part of the urban area of the province's capital city Ghent.
It is situated at the banks of the river Lys.
Maurice and Anna De Weert
Anna De Weert, née Cogen; Anna Virginie C ...
, where he lived in a villa provided by the art promoter and journalist,
Paul-Gustave van Hecke. In 1927, he finally settled in
Deurle
Deurle is part of the municipality of Sint-Martens-Latem located in the Flemish part of Belgium. Deurle is a picturesque small village near the borders of the river Lys and was added to Sint-Martens-Latem in 1977. Many well-known Flemish artists ...
.
It was there that his mixture of Expressionism and Cubism peaked, with a series of works depicting circus, fairground and village scenes. After his death in Deurle at the age of sixty-six, his house was preserved as a local museum.
Selected paintings
L'artiste et sa femme, Deurle,1927, G.de Smet.JPG, The Artist and His Wife
DeSmet-Gallery.jpg, The Great Shooting Gallery
DeSmet-Bottle.jpg, The Man with
the Bottle
Gust De Smet De jonge kapitein 1927 001.JPG, The Young Captain
Public collections
Among the public collections holding works by Gustave De Smet are:
*
Antwerp
Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, ,
Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp
The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (Dutch: ''Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen'', ''KMSKA'') is a museum in Antwerp, Belgium, founded in 1810, that houses a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the fourteenth t ...
*
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
,
Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Muse ...
*
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
,
Kunstmuseum Den Haag
The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...
*
Deinze
Deinze () is a city and a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders. It comprises the city of Deinze, and the towns of Astene, Bachte-Maria-Leerne, Gottem, Grammene, Hansbeke, Landegem, Meigem, Merendree, Nevele, Petegem-aan-de-Leie, ...
,
Museum van Deinze en de Leiestreek
Museum van Deinze en de Leiestreek (Dutch for 'Museum of Deinze and the Leie region'), also known as mudel, is a museum of fine arts and folklore located in the city of Deinze, Belgium. The permanent exhibition displays exclusively artworks produce ...
*
Haarlem
Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...
,
Frans Hals Museum
The Frans Hals Museum is a museum located in Haarlem, the Netherlands.
The museum was established in 1862. In 1950, the museum was split in two locations when the collection of modern art was moved to the '' Museum De Hallen'' (since 2018 called ...
*
Ghent
Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...
,
Museum of Fine Arts
*
Ostend
Ostend ( nl, Oostende, ; french: link=no, Ostende ; german: link=no, Ostende ; vls, Ostende) is a coastal city and municipality, located in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerk ...
,
Mu.ZEE
*
Venlo
Venlo () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the southeastern Netherlands, close to the border with Germany. It is situated in the province of Limburg (Netherland ...
,
Museum van Bommel van Dam
Museum van Bommel van Dam is a Dutch museum of modern art in Venlo in the southeast Netherlands. The museum belongs to the German/Dutch cooperation Crossart, a partnership between 7 German museums in Westfalen and 4 Dutch museums in Gelderland ...
*
Zwolle
Zwolle () is a city and municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Overijssel and the province's second-largest municipality after Enschede with a population of 130,592 as of 1 December 2021. Zwolle is o ...
,
Museum De Fundatie
Museum de Fundatie () is a museum for the visual arts in Zwolle, Netherlands. Museum de Fundatie forms part of the Hannema-de Stuers Foundation, to which Kasteel het Nijenhuis in Heino also belongs. Museum de Fundatie possesses a collection of vis ...
Digitale Collectie Nederland
/ref>
References
Further reading
*Piet Boyens, ''Gust. De Smet. Kroniek – Kunsthistorische analyse'', Fonds Mercator, 1989
External links
ArtNet: More works by De Smet.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smet, Gustave De
Belgian Expressionist painters
1877 births
1943 deaths
20th-century Belgian painters
Cubist artists
Artists from Ghent