Albert Servaes - De Wijsgeer - Sold

Albert Servaes (Ghent, April 4, 1883 – Lucerne, April 19, 1966) was a painter and draftsman and is regarded as Belgium's first expressionist. In 1905 he moved to Sint-Martens-Latem where he settled in a wooden shack. He was a deeply religious person who liked to leave the paths already explored in his art. One of his favorite themes was the suffering of Jesus Christ. He belonged to the first group of the Latem Schools. The drama and the sternness expressed in his works are supported by his dark colors and the thick lines with which he gave shape to his figures. The Roman Catholic Church and many of his contemporaries were annoyed by the raw reality he painted. The Way of the Cross that he drew around 1920 for the chapel of Luithagen near Antwerp (now kept in the Abbey Koningshoeven of Berkel-Enschot) is an example of this. Remarkable in his work are his landscapes and portraits. Because of the sympathies he harbored for German cultural policy during National Socialism, he had to flee to Switzerland after the Second World War. This work is an image of a sage. Technique: charcoal on paper. Signed on the bottom right. Dated December 31, 1930.