Recumbent Nude, ca. 1938 - ca. 1939

After his return from Great Britain after the First World War, Constant Permeke settled in Ostend and from 1923 permanently in Jabbeke, a village between Ostend and Bruges. With closed and angular forms, dark earthy colours and a heavy paint material, he depicted peasant life. Expressive distortions and cubist elements emphasise the monumentality of his figures. Permeke also made large drawings, accurate and refined in line. In both his paintings and drawings he experimented with the idea of the unfinished and at the same time applied various techniques, which contributes to the spontaneous and dynamic character of his work. From the late 1930s onward, he devoted himself to drawing and painting the female nude, a theme he had previously dealt with only sporadically. In the same period, he also started to sculpt and many of his drawings are, as it were, studies for his sculptures in which he also almost exclusively used the female nude as subject. But Reclining Nude cannot possibly be seen as a preliminary study; it is rather the depiction of an archetype. As in many of his works, Permeke also experimented here with the idea of the unfinished, which emphasises the timeless character of the representation.