Gustave De Smet (1877-1943) - A Belgian painter, ascribed to Expressionism

Gustave Franciscus De Smet (21 January 1877 – 8 October 1943) was a Belgian painter, ascribed to Expressionism. Together with Constant Permeke and Frits Van den Berghe, he was one of the founders of Flemish Expressionism. His younger brother, Léon De Smet [fr], also became a painter. He was a member of the Sint-Martens-Latem artists’ colony, along with Albert Servaes, Gustave Van de Woestijne, Constant Permeke and Frits Van den Berghe. Initiated in Impressionism, during his stay in Holland during the First World War he received the influence of Expressionism, mainly due to contact with Jan Sluyters and Henri Le Fauconnier. He specialized in landscape painting, generally in a rural setting, portraying agricultural life and the popular traditions of his country, with a certain cubist-influenced schematization and an unreal air close to Chagall. :Gust