Leon de Smet (1881-1966). Beautiful Paintings!

Rose Harmony, 1912

Leon de Smet was born in Gent, Belgium, where he studied at the local Academy for the Fine Arts. From the beginning he painted in an impressionistic way.
In the beginning of the First World War he fled to Great Britain Soon he was quickly able to count influential cultural figures among his friends such as the writers Joseph Conrad, John Galsworthy, Bernard Shaw. He gradually emerged as a welcome society figure. He would make a fortune with portrait painting during his British exile.
The first London triumph followed in January of 1917 with a noteworthy individual exhibition at the Leicester Gallery.
Leon De Smet (1881-1966). Still Lifes and Landscapes

The Bathers, 1910

The Letter, 1913

It the end of 1917 De Smet was called to arms. But the superb portrait painter knew how to bend fate to his will, painting primarily portraits of his superiors. He was stationed in Normandy, as assistant to the medical services.
In the years up until 1920 his style was clearly divisionistic in which he mingled in soft strokes of pastel-like pallets. In that time his interiors with figures were intimate and dreamlike. He continued his career in his primary style of the Impressionism, nevertheless the divisionistic touch faded away and was replaced by more vivid colours, and less vague figures. Among his favorite subjects we can find landscapes, figures and still lifes. He often painted his first and second wives Maria and Claire and their families.
He settled in Deurle in 1930. He lived on Pontstraat in the garden house of Hotel Saint-Christophe. Around this time, De Smet also worked on a series of portraits of leading public figures for example The Portrait of Queen Astrid (1935).

The Portrait of Queen Astrid (1935)

Girl Wearing a Hat

White Harmony, 1909

Woman at the Window, 1909

Little Girl at Table

Two Children in an Interior

The Red Table

Louise

Woman at the Mirror

Woman on the Terrace (Mrs. De Smet), 1923

Sitting Woman in an Interior

Claire in a Summer Dress in front of the Mirror, 1943

Lady with a Fan

1910

Interior

Reading Girl

Woman with Shawl, 1921

Portrait of the Artist's Wife, 1917-1919

Madame Maria De Smet and her Son Marcel, 1915

Young Woman in an Interior

Portrait of a Woman, 1943

Portrait of Paule Vezelay, 1918