Frits Van den Berghe

Frits Van den Berghe (3 April 1883 – 23 September 1939) was a Belgian expressionist and surrealist painter and illustrator.

Biography

He was born in Ghent, where his father was the Librarian at the University of Ghent. From 1898 to 1904, he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts under Jean Delvin. In 1904, on the recommendation of his fellow painter, Alfons Dessenis (1874–1952), he went to stay at the art colony in Sint-Martens-Latem. It was there he met Albert Servaes, Gustave De Smet and Constant Permeke. Together, they established what came to be known as the Latem School of expressionist painting. During his later years, he painted in a surrealistic style, replete with dream visions and hallucinations. He died in Ghent on 23 September 1939.

Major retrospectives were held in 1962 (Brussels) and 1984 (Utrecht). On the sixtieth anniversary of his death, in 1999, a large exhibition was held in Ostend with, for the first time, his illustrations. His painting, "Zondag" (Sunday), was included in the German series 1000 Meisterwerke and featured on a Belgian postage stamp in 2001.

Selected paintings