Gustave Van de Woestyne

When painters started to enjoy working in contact with nature, various schools were born, over a good 50 years. Barbizon is emblematic of that phenomenon. In Belgium, the more recent school of the Lys, marked by Symbolism, was the main one. Among that group of painters settled along the river, Gustave Van de Woestyne is one of the most disconcerting. His style drew meanders throughout his life (1881-1947), going from religious compositions influenced by the contribution by Maurice Denis to peasant scenes, an update of Brueghel and Jerome Bosch. On the contrary in his portraits of worldly men and of members of his family, he is closer to the neo-Classic current, as represented by Achille Funi in Italy at the same time. This book is the catalogue of the exhibition currently dedicated to him at the musée des Beaux-Arts in Gand, and it deciphers his work by following a chronological system that lends itself easily to the presentation of his successive infatuations.

•Gustave Van de Woestyne, Robert Hoozee and Cathérine Verleysen, Fonds Mercator, 2010, 258 p., 44.95 €