Léon de Smet

H. Lingier Collection, Passendale
Acquired by the present owner in Deurle in 1986

Deurle, Museum Léon De Smet, Retrospektieve Léon De Smet, 1986, no. 47, illustrated in the catalogue

The canvas is not lined. There are no signs of retouching visible under UV light. This work is in good original condition.
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Comp ID: 431D07008_COMP
Fig.I, Photograph of Léon de Smet with his family in the dining-room, Sint-Martens-Latem, 1909

De Smet pursued his formal training as an artist together with his brother Gustave at the Ghent Academy. In 1906 Léon moved to Laethem-Saint-Martin, and together with his contemporaries began to champion a new aesthetic derived from the Impressionist canon and the pointillist technique of Seurat and van Rysselberghe: Luminism. The leader of the group was Emile Claus, and Léon and his associates began to paint the landscapes of Ghent and its surroundings, interiors, portraits and nudes, through the light-filled eyes of this master of Luminism. In the early part of the 20^th century De Smet exhibited with the Brussels group Vie et Lumière led by, amongst others, Claus.

It was De Smet who perhaps, out of all his contemporaries, gave the Luminist genre a very individual charm and who remained most faithful to it throughout his lifetime. Fillette à table has all the qualities of a Luminist painting; the wide range of freely applied paint in short dabbed strokes allows De Smet to transcribe the colourful glow of the flower arrangement, and he skilfully captures the play of light that reflects off the table ornaments up onto the young girl's face.