Gustave DE SMET (1877-1943) - Lot 269

Gustave DE SMET (1877-1943) Worker at work, charcoal drawing, signed lower right, 63 x 46cm. Note: In his early years, the influence of Émile Claus steered Gustave De Smet towards a luminism focused on color relationships within composition. His works of the period have poetic, sometimes melancholy and romantic inflections. Soon afterwards, he turned to symbolist subjects, with a strong emphasis on allegory and myth. In 1916, under the influence of innovators such as the Frenchman Le Fauconnier (1881-1946), the Dutchmen Jan Sluyters (1881-1957), Leo Gestel (en) (1881-1941) and Charley Toorop (1891-1955), the Germans Franz Marc (1880-1916) and Heinrich Campendonk (1889-1957), he abandoned Impressionism and turned deliberately towards Expressionism. From 1919 onwards, he showed a tendency towards greater geometry. Elements of nature or familiar, intimate scenes are translated into vast, inarticulate planes; lines are stiff and taut; composition gains in rigor and clarity. Related to the art of Franz Marc and August Macke, he expresses impressions felt in nature or society, using a combination of contrasting bright or dark, impastoed colors and post-Cubist or Constructivist formulas. Through correspondences and repetitions, he creates a rhythm that permeates the work.