Gustave De Smet

Both Gustave and his brother began working in their father's studio, then attended the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, where they studied under Jean Delvin.

At the beginning of World War I, he and his family joined his friend, Van den Berghe, and fled to the Netherlands.

[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.

[2] He returned to Belgium in 1922, but continued to move frequently, usually in the company of his friends Van den Berghe and Permeke, beginning in Ostend, then to Bachte-Maria-Leerne and Afsnee, where he lived in a villa provided by the art promoter and journalist, Paul-Gustave van Hecke.

[1] It was there that his mixture of Expressionism and Cubism peaked, with a series of works depicting circus, fairground and village scenes.