Jakob Smits, Landscape in the Kempen with a Small Deck

by Atelier Liesjes

A vast, pale expanse of sky takes up almost two-thirds of the canvas: chalk blue, ivory white and soft grey, rendered thinly and sparingly with long horizontal strokes. Beneath it lies a narrow strip of the Kempen. On the right, a dark mass of deciduous trees rises up, almost black-green with the occasional olive-green outlier, and behind the treetops a red roof glimmers. At the foot of the trees stands a row of low, whitewashed farmhouses with dark thatched roofs; the walls stand out sharply against the shadows. In the centre, a strip of grassland in shades of yellow-green and sage-green stretches towards the horizon, with a few dark bushes in front of it. In the foreground lies a sandy path in pale ochre and cream, with a small footbridge of rough planks spanning a ditch on the left and a lopsided pile next to it. At the bottom right, the path continues alongside a ditch of dark water, and on the horizon everything fades into a grey streak. Smits paints this landscape without embellishment. The paint is thin and dry, almost squeezed out, and the colours remain within a narrow range of grey, green and ochre; only the red roof and the white masonry provide a jarring contrast. There is no narrative in the picture, no figures engaged in any activity, only the stillness of an afternoon in the Kempen. The style is akin to the realism and Impressionism of the Flemish landscape painters, but the austerity and the pale, high light are characteristic of this artist.
Jakob Smits (Rotterdam 1855 – Mol 1928) settled in Achterbos near Mol in 1888 and became the central figure of the Mol School, the group of landscape and rural painters who worked in the Kempen region around his studio. His work is housed in the Jakob Smits Museum in Mol. A subdued, atmospheric piece for a tranquil interior.