Gustave Franciscus de Smet (1877 - 1943)
Gustave Franciscus de Smet
Gustave Franciscus De Smet was a Belgian painter. Together with Constant Permeke and Frits Van den Berghe, he was one of the founders of Flemish Expressionism. In 1908, he and his wife followed Léon to the artists' colony in Sint-Martens-Latem. There, they initially came under the influence of Luminism and the painter Emile Claus, 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.[2] His meeting with the Expressionist painter Henri Le Fauconnier marked a turning point in his style which, up until then, owed much to Cubism. In 1927, he settled in Deurle. 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.
| Date and place of birt: | 21 january 1877, Gent, Belgium |
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| Date and place of death: | 8 october 1943, Sint-Martens-Latem, Belgium |
| Nationality: | Belgium |
| Period of activity: | XIX, XX century |
| Specialization: | Artist, Genre painter, Landscape painter, Painter, Portraitist |
| Genre: | Allegory, Cityscape, Flower still life, Genre art, Nude art, Landscape painting, Mythological painting, Portrait, Still life |
| Art style: | Cubism, Expressionism, Impressionism, Realism, Luminism, Symbolism |
| Technique: | Gouache, Oil, Oil on canvas, Watercolor |
