Oil on canvas, mounted on card 38 x 39.1 cm, framed. Signed 'Gus. de Smet' in black lower right. - Card slightly warped. Some small flaking of colour, secured through conservation and retouched; professionally cleaned.
Not recorded by Boyens
Gustave de Smet lived in the village of Blaricum, north of Laren, from 1916 to 1921. The Expressionist landscape shown here, with its blue farm building, was painted during this period and in this environment (see Boyens, 486, op.cit. with illus. p. 353).
Gustave de Smet continued to be a close friend of Frits van den Berghe, Paul Gustave van Hecke, André de Ridder and Constant Permeke, as well as with other artists and literati of the artists' colony Laethem-Saint-Martin. It was a circle where, around 1910, a Flemish form of Expressionism had formed after an initial stage of Impressionism. This stylistic development grew stronger after the First World War - a modern transformation of figures and landscapes that was clearly also reflected in De Smet's oeuvre. He tended towards formal abstraction, planar, synthetic structures and a new form of colour rendering. As Piet Boyens points out, De Smet had his own way of integrating influences from both German Expressionism and French Cubism. This phase around 1918 is characterised, in particular, by a rich, paste-like application of paint.
Certificate
With a photo-certificate from Piet Boyens, Sweikhuizen, Netherlands, dated 22 March 2013; we would also like to thank Piet Boyens for kind additional information.
Provenance
Formerly collection Dr. Jules van Roy, Ghent; since then in family possession
Literature
cf. Piet Boyens, Gust. De Smet, Chronique et Analyse de l'oeuvre, avec un catalogue raisonné et illustré: peintures, dessins et oeuvre graphique, Antwerp 1989, no. 486 ("Vue du village (Blaricum) 1918") with illus. p. 353, see also Robert Hoozee, Vlaams Expressionisme in Europese Context 1900-1930, exhib. cat. Museum voor Schone Kunsten Gent 1990, cat. no. 75 'Dorpsgezicht (Blaricum) 1918' with illus. p. 127; cf. also Piet Boyens (ed.), Retrospectieve Gust. De Smet, exhib. cat. Provinciaal Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Oostende, 1989, cat. nos. 48 - 62.