PERMEKE, CONSTANT

born July 31, 1886, Antwerp, Belg. died Jan. 4, 1952, Ostend painter and sculptor who was significant in the development of Expressionism in Belgium. Permeke studied at art academies in Bruges and Ghent. He came to know fellow Belgian artists Frits van den Berghe and Gustave and Lon de Smet and from 1909 to 1912 joined them at a popular artists' colony at Laethem-Saint-Martin, Belg. In England during World War I, Permeke composed some of his most profound paintings. His thick brushwork, sombre, earthy colours, and depictions of massive human figures helped usher Belgian painting into a new era. Although his subjects and themes were grounded in the Flemish tradition-farmers, fishermen, and everyday life-Permeke's personal vision gave powerful expression to the ordinary, as in "The Oarsmen" (1921). In 1935 he began sculpting torsos and nudes that were marked by the same solid, weighty, and often brutal style.