Modest Huys artwork • painting • for sale Flemish landscape with a stream (probably de Mandel or de Leie)

Flemish Impressionist and Luminist Modest Huys began his career as a painter-decorator, but around 1891 comes into contact with the post-impressionist Emil Claus, who persuades him to become a painter. Huys preferred to paint nature and the people living along the Leie River, the flax workers and the fairgoers, but he also created portraits and landscapes. While not a student of Claus, Huys was initially strongly influenced by him and was therefore considered part of the Sint-Martens-Latem art movement. During the Interwar period, Huys increasingly finds his own style, and we see accentuated margins, a blurred background, and colors that transition from soft to dark, rendered on the canvas in harsh contrasts, much like the Expressionist Permeke did.