Latemse School

The Latemse School ( German also: Laethemer Schule or Gruppe ) is a Flemish group of artists who worked in Deurle and Sint-Martens-Latem , two villages on the Leie south of Ghent , in the first half of the 20th century .

The Latemse School is usually divided into the following groups:

• The first group, the so-called mystics, included Albert Servaes , George Minne , Gustaaf Van de Woestijne , Valerius De Saedeleer and Albijn Van den Abeele .
• The second group included the expressionists Constant Permeke , Gustave de Smet , Leon de Smet and Frits van den Berghe . This group in particular had a great influence on the development of the later modern movement in Belgium .
• The third group, of which only Hubert Malfait was based in Sint-Martens-Latem, also includes the painters Albert Saverijs , Jozef de Coene , Albert Claeys , Victor Lorein , Achile Van Sassenbroeck , Jules Boulez , Louis Pevernagie and Maurice Schelck .
• Some critics also recognize a fourth generation within this school to which they then include Fons Roggeman , Luc-Peter Crombé , Joe Van Rossem , Chris Pots , Jef Wauters , Lea Vanderstraeten .

The term school does not mean that the artists have formed a specific organization, but was coined because of a common village life and some stylistic similarities. The first group after 1900 dealt mainly with symbolism , while the second group after 1914 mainly used expressionist style elements. The artists in the third group did not feel they belonged to any particular style, but their art was based - sometimes very clearly - on that of their predecessors.