Valerius de Saedeleer

Valerius de Saedeleer or Valerius De Saedeleer (4 August 1867 – 16 September 1941) was a Belgian landscape painter, whose works are informed by a Symbolist and mystic-religious sensitivity and the traditions of 16th-century Flemish landscape painting. He was one of the main figures in the so-called first School of Latem which in the first decade of the 20th century introduced modernist trends in Belgian painting and sculpture. Gustave Van de Woestyne – Portrait of Valerius De Saedeleer 1914.

Life

Beginnings

Valerius de Saedeleer was born in Aalst, Belgium, as the son of a small businessman who operated a soda and soap making factory. As a result of conflicts with his parents and problems at school, he left school at age fifteen and was forced by his father to study an acceptable profession. To this end, he was employed as an apprentice at a Ghent weaving workshop and took classes in weaving at an industrial school in Ghent. Without his parents' knowledge he enrolled at the Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, where he met Théo van Rysselberghe and George Minne.

Wandering existence

Unhappy with the academic teaching at the Ghent Academy, he moved to Brussels where he studied for four years with the impressionist landscape painter Franz Courtens. He then started working as an independent artist. In his early work, the artist remained indebted to his teacher Courtens and was influenced by Emile Claus. This showed he was still searching for his own style.

On 14 November 1889 the young artist married in Aalst Clementina 'Clemmeke' Limpens (1867–1930), a grocer's daughter from Erembodegem, near Aalst. Around 1905 other artists would move to Sint-Martens-Latem. These artists, the most notable of whom included Constant Permeke, Albert Servaes and Gustave de Smet, are referred to as the second School of Latem. They started out as impressionists but would develop towards an expressionist idiom in reaction to their experiences in World War I. The initiative of the Davies family in inviting Belgian artists to Wales was prompted by their expectation that these artists would be able to inject local cultural life with their expertise. De Saedeleer's daughters studied weaving, binding and tapestry at Aberystwyth. The second daughter Elisabeth became acquainted with William Morris' daughter Mary from whom she learned tapestry weaving. The family became so accomplished at weaving that they even started giving courses in the craft themselves. De Saedeleer may have undertaken some conservation work on items from the Aberystwyth University Collection. He also exhibited his paintings of local views in the university's Alexandra Hall and was able to earn a living from his art.

Influence The work of de Saedeleer was influential on Belgian landscape painters of the next generation such as Albert Claeys and Albert Saverys whose work referenced de Saedeleer and his inspiration, Pieter Brueghel the Elder.

In recent years the work of the artist has been the subject of retrospective exhibitions such as those held in Aalst in 1967, in Oudenaarde in 1998, again in Aalst in 2000, and in Deinze in 2006.