Constant Permeke

Constant Permeke, whose father was also a painter and provided him with art instruction at a young age, studied at the academies in Bruges and Ghent. There he met Frits Van den Berghe and Gustave de Smet – artists who, along with himself, are now seen as the most important Expressionists from Belgium. In 1909 he and de Smet moved to the famous artists’ colony of Sint-Martens-Latem; after the First World War, he moved to Jabbeke, where his studio can now be visited in the form of the Permeke-Museum. His favourite themes included the rural populace, farmers and fishers, whom he characterised in a simple, monumental form.