Background
Permeke was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on July 31, 1886. His father, a landscape painter, founded the Municipal Museum of Arts in 1893 of which he later became director.
1942
Henri Puvrez, Bust of the painter Permeke.
Ghent, Belgium
Hogeschool Gent.
1000 Belgian Francs banknote 1997 Constant Permeke.
Permeke was born in Antwerp, Belgium, on July 31, 1886. His father, a landscape painter, founded the Municipal Museum of Arts in 1893 of which he later became director.
When Constant Permeke was six years old his family moved to Ostend. He attended the Bruges Academy from 1903 to 1906 and the Academy in Ghent (now part of Hogeschool Gent) from 1906 to 1908. Concurrently, he was drafted into the Belgian army and served in a university company in Sint-Martens-Latem. His military service ended the same year when he graduated from the academy. While in the academy, he befriended the artists Frits Van de Berghe, Gustave de Smet, and Léon de Smet.
Permeke resided in Sint-Martens-Latem between 1909 and 1912, then he moved to Ostend, living there between 1912 and 1914. During this period his works were characterized by heavy brush and they gained their expressive force through muted tonality and brutal forms. When the First World War broke out, Constant Permeke was mobilized in 1914. He was severely wounded near the town of Duffel and evacuated to England. In 1916 he moved to Chardstock in Devonshire and started to paint again, depicting mainly English landscapes.
When the war was over, Constant Permeke returned to Ostend in 1919. Shocked by the harsh reality of the worker's life, he produced pictures of the fisherfolk of the port, using predominantly brown and black colours. First one-man exhibitions took place in Antwerp and at La Licorne, Paris, in 1921. Between 1922 and 1924 Permeke on regular basis went to Astene, in order to cooperate with Frits Van den Berghe, a Belgian expressionist and surrealist painter and illustrator. Starting from 1925 he spent the summer months in Jabbeke, a small town between Ostend and Bruges, and settled there in 1930. He participated in the Venice Biennale in 1934. During these years, Permeke was highly productive, creating works like "Gouden Oogst" (1935), "De Grote Marine" (1935), "Moederschap" (1936), "Het Afscheid" (1948), "Dagelijks Brood" (1950). In 1937 Constant Permeke began to make sculptures, mostly of female nudes.
Under German occupation during the Second World War, Permeke was prohibited to paint what was viewed by them as "degenerate art." After the war, he held the post of a director of the National higher Institute and of the Royal Academy in Antwerp, after one year he resigned. In 1947-1948, he had a retrospective exhibition in Paris.
During the last period of his life, Constant Permeke's artworks softened which was proved by his refinement in drawing and colours. His last works included "De dame met de rode handschoenen" (1951) and some landscapes. In 1951 his health declined and he became bedfast.
Constant Permeke was one of the most outstanding painters and sculptors who was known for his use of dark, muted colors, and expressionistic stylizations in his depiction of farmers, fisherman, and landscapes. He was significant in the development of Expressionism in Belgium.
On the 100th anniversary, PMMK, the Ostend Art Museum, organized an extensive retrospective exhibition of Permeke's art works in 1986. In 1922 he became the Officer in the Order of Leopold. In 1997, Belgium recognized Permeke's accomplishments by imprinting his portrait and one of his works on the 1,000 Belgian franc bill.
Nu
Working the field
Fleurs: a still life with flowers
Maternité
Landscape with Cows
Zicht Aan de Augustijnenbrug te Brugge
A landscape with a farm
The Harvest
The Mountains at Vevey, Switzerland
A snow covered village
Marine, temps gris
Mer brumeuse
Leonie
The artist's house
Farmer
Ferme en Flandres
Nordic landscape
Harvest
Farmhouses in a sunny landscape
Landscape with Haystacks
A still life with vegetables
La Rousse
In Bretagne
Vissershaven te Oostende
Boats in a Harbour, Ostende
Hiver en Flandre (Winter in Flanders)
L'estacade d'Ostende
La ferme au saule
Meisje
Le Cheval de Carrousel
Primitive heads
Harvest
In 1912 Constant Permeke married Maria Delaere. Their marriage produced three children, John, Paul and Thérèse.
