Albert Servaes
Encyclopedia
Albert Servaes was a Belgian expressionist painter. He was part of the first Latem school of painting which focused on Mystical Realism, but became a founder of Belgian expressionism later in life. He became known for his religious works, typically showing the suffering of Jesus Christ, which stirred controversy in the Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

. He also gained fame for his expressionist landscapes.

Life and career

Albert Servaes was born in the city of Ghent
Ghent
Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

, in the Flanders region of Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

. He painted from a young age, and was mostly self-taught. At the age of 23, Servaes joined a community of artists outside of Ghent, in Latham-Saint-Martin. He became religiously interested while living in the community, and he befriended members of the church. At this time, he developed an interest in religious works and mysticism, which would play a major part in the first Latem School he would join. Servaes struggled to live off his paintings early in his career, but he gained fame and recognition in Ghent and Belgium during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. Several of his exhibitions near Ghent solidified his name in the regional art discourse while also stabilizing him financially.

Servaes was a member of the first Latem school of Painting, which was focused on mystical realism. Other members of the school included George Minne
George Minne
George Minne was born in Ghent as the son of an architect . Birth names : Georgius Joannes Leonardus...

, Gustave van de Woestijne
Gustave Van de Woestijne
Gustave Van de Woestijne was a Belgian expressionist painter.He belonged to the so-called "First Group of Latem", a group of artists who worked in the rural village of Sint-Martens-Latem on the banks of the Lys, near Ghent. He was the brother of the Flemish poet Karel Van de Woestijne....

, Valerius De Sardeleer, and Albijn Van den Abeele. The school’s mystical realism orientation was a reaction to the Paris-based Impressionist art that had dominated the painting world for the previous half-century. With George Minne, Servaes gained international recognition because of major exhibits in Brussels and Amsterdam.

Servaes and other painters of the time were forced to innovate in order to keep their livelihood alive. Photographers were intruding on an industry that had once been dominated by painters. In order to gain attention from critics and the public, artists in the early 20th century had to be original. This contrasts past painters who worked toward a mastery of the common painting techniques such as the use of light and color. Since photography could easily portray exactly what an artist sees, painters needed to find a fresh method to express themselves. Servaes innovated in his work using painting techniques that founded Flemish Expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...

. He experimented with different ways to show his personal emotions through his paintings.

During World War II, Servaes was threatened by the Nazis because of his Flemish sympathies. He fled to Switzerland in 1944 where he would remain until his death in 1966.

Expressionist Techniques

Common themes of Servaes paintings were landscapes, agricultural scenes, and subjects from the Bible. He pioneered the expressionist style in Flanders
Flanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...

 using several techniques. The first was a blurring of perspective that was first found in Impressionism. Servaes combined this technique with a use of earth colors to create a gloomy tone in many of his works. An example of this is his 1914 landscape Petit Chemin, which translates as “a small path” or a “small way.” The earth tones in this painting show his exclusive use of somber colors, even for the sky. He signed the piece “A. Servaes,” as he did for most of his works.

Roman Catholic Church Controversy

Servaes’ 1919 Stations of the Cross of Luithagen was a collection of 14 charcoal drawings depicting religious figures, such as an emaciated Jesus Christ on the cross. These drawings represented a raw expressionist style of religious scenes which the Catholic Church disproved of. Due to Servaes’ brutal depictions of religious events, many of his works were removed from Belgian churches in 1921. The controversy demonstrates how expressionists were misunderstood in the public eye because their work distorted nature in a way that led away from beauty.

The fallout of the controversy left Servaes at a crossroads in his painting career. He focused on landscape paintings after the controversy and before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 began. However, Servaes did not give up his grim exclusively-charcoal technique permanently. When he lived with the monks at Orval Abbey
Orval Abbey
Orval Abbey is a Cistercian monastery founded in 1132 in the Gaume region of Belgium and is located in Villers-devant-Orval, part of Florenville in the province of Luxembourg...

starting in 1927, he drew the residents there using his charcoal-expressionist style. By 1935, the public was more accepting of new art styles, and the monks commissioned Servaes to create a new Stations of the Cross collection.
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