Leon De Smet. Tijdens de Oorlog.
Leon De Smet (1881 - 1966) vlucht ook naar Engeland, aanvankelijk in Devonshire, in 1915 arriveert hij in London. Al vlug krijgt hij erkenning in Londen. Schrijvers als John Galsworthy, Joseph Conrad en George Bernard Shaw en de schilder-designer Frank Brangwyn behoren tot zijn vriendenkring. Brangwyn die Belgische roots heeft en vele Belgische kunstenaars helpt. Leon De Smet betrekt een een ruim atelier in het midden van een kunstenaarskwartier, exposeert in de Royal Academy en verschillende prestigieuze gallerijen. Leo De Smet verkocht goed, hij werd een gewaardeerd portretschilder en society figuur. Eind 1917 wordt hij onder de wapens geroepen maar hij werkte als hulp bij de medische dienst en bleef portretten schilderen van superieuren.
Léon de Smet(1881 - 1966) - Artist Detail - Fine Art Dealers MacConnal-Mason Gallery Fi...
On the outbreak of war de Smet moved to London in 1914 where he associated with colleagues de Saedelier, Constant Permeke (1886-1952) and Emile Claus. In 1915 he was settled in Tavistock Square, London, exhibiting at the Royal Academy and moving in an artistic and literary circle including George Bernard Shaw, William Orpen, Frank Brangwyn, John Galsworthy and Joseph Conrad. Leon de Smet rapidly acquired an international reputation, exhibiting at the Royal Academy again in 1916 and the following year at the Leicester Galleries. He continued to exhibit in London 1920-1925, in 1921 a reviewer in The Globe wrote of the eagerly awaited exhibition and of de Smet as “a magnificent draughtsman and a fine colourist.” His still lifes of this period, in contrast to his Luminist works, were a mosaic of colour that defied the convention of still life painting. In his landscapes and portraits however de Smet had much in common with his French contemporaries Henri Martin (1860-1943) and in particular Henri Le Sidaner (1862-1939) in terms of brushwork, tonality and atmosphere.
Summary
Black crayon drawing of Bernard Shaw by Léon de Smet (Ghent 1881 – Deurle 1966). A half-length portrait of Shaw, seated and wearing a buttoned jacket with a shirt and tie. Signed and dated bottom right “LEON DE SMET/ 1915 (in circle)”.
Full description
Black crayon drawing of Bernard Shaw by Léon de Smet (Ghent 1881 – Deurle 1966). A half-length portrait of Shaw, seated and wearing a buttoned jacket with a shirt and tie. Signed and dated bottom right “LEON DE SMET/ 1915 (in circle)”. Labels verso for National Trust Loan to National Portrait Gallery exhibition in London, 1992. Leon De Smet was a Belgian refugee who came to London during the First World War and became acquainted with Shaw through his friends the writer John Galsworthy, and the wealthy arts patron Madame Lalla Vandervelde (the wife of the Belgian Socialist leader) who appeared in Shaw’s playlet Augustus Does His Bit. With typical generosity Shaw acted as one of De Smet’s patrons, offering advice on possible exhibition venues and financial assistance. Over the years the Shaws purchased many of his oil paintings, and one survives in the collection Still Life with an Image of the Madonna in a Glass Case (1923). Shaw sat for this portrait in 1915. The resulting crayon drawing by De Smet was much admired by Shaw. He later remarked in Sixteen Self Sketches (1949): “De Smet’s portrait is that of a quiet delicate elderly gentleman: Shaw likes its resemblance to his father”. Shaw arranged for the portrait to be published in Colour magazine in November 1915 to promote De Smet’s work. The picture was always kept at Ayot, unlike most of the other portraits and sculpture which were displayed in the London flats. Shaw notes in his diary for 1917 (written at Shaw’s Corner): “Wrote to De Smet, the Belgian painter, about getting his portrait of me, which hangs down here, up to town to his exhibition at the Leicester Gallery”. Here Shaw refers to De Smet’s first solo exhibition in London. (Alice McEwan, 2020)
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