Hospitality to Strangers, 1920

Gustave Van de Woestyne greatly admired 15th-century Italian murals. After WWI he began to experiment with the fresco technique. The 1920 painting Hospitality to Strangers is a good example of this. It comes from ‘Rozenhuis’, Van de Woestyne’s house in Waregem (West-Flanders) where he lived from 1919 to 1926. He has painted himself inviting a stranger into his home. This fresco, inspired by Christian teachings, was probably based on the sufferings of the people after the war, which Van de Woestyne wrote about with great sympathy in his letters at the time. The work refers to the ‘works of mercy’ mentioned in the gospel of St. Matthew.