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Biography

(b Ghent, 4 April 1883; d Lucerne, 19 April 1966). Belgian painter. He took evening classes at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent (1901–2), but he was mainly self-taught. In 1905 he settled in LAETHEM-SAINT-MARTIN and painted landscapes, farmers, harvests and biblical scenes. During his formative years he was influenced by Gustave Van de Woestyne, Eugène Laermans and Jakob Smits. In the Potato Planters (1909; Brussels, Mus. A. Mod.) the characteristics of Flemish ... (view more)

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

(b Ghent, 4 April 1883; d Lucerne, 19 April 1966). Belgian painter. He took evening classes at the Koninklijke Academie voor Schone Kunsten in Ghent (1901–2), but he was mainly self-taught. In 1905 he settled in LAETHEM-SAINT-MARTIN and painted landscapes, farmers, harvests and biblical scenes. During his formative years he was influenced by Gustave Van de Woestyne, Eugène Laermans and Jakob Smits. In the Potato Planters (1909; Brussels, Mus. A. Mod.) the characteristics of Flemish Expressionism can be seen for the first time in the boldness of his painting, the monumental schematized figures and dark colours. From 1916 Servaes started to work in series, for example the Life of the Peasant (1920; Antwerp, Kon. Mus. S. Kst.), which was awarded a prize at the Venice Biennale in 1920, the Stations of the Cross and the Life of the Virgin . Servaes was responsible for a renewed interest in ecclesiastical art in Belgium. His Stations of the Cross of Luithagen (1919; Tilburg, Abbey of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw) consists of 14 charcoal drawings on white paper; the skeleton-like figures are boldly sketched and harrowing in their expressiveness. Yet this Expressionist style was misunderstood and was condemned by the Roman Catholic Church in 1921, and as a result most of Servaes’s religious works were removed from Belgian churches. Servaes was also an important landscape painter, notably of harvest and snow scenes, which were widely imitated in the first half of the 20th century. In 1944 he moved to Switzerland, where he produced numerous mountain scenes, as well as portraits and religious subjects, executed primarily in pastel and in an Expressionist style. The illustrations from C. F. Ramuz’s Jean-Luc persécuté (1951; priv. col., see exh. cat., pp. 52–4) and Stations of the Cross for Afsnee are among his best works of this period.  (hide)

Grove Art excerpts - Electronic ©2003, Oxford Art Online

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