Portrait of the Writer Karel van de Woestijne, 1910

Although Karel van de Woestijne was not a visual artist himself, he became the key figure of the first group of Sint-Martens-Latem. His poetry work was permeated by the aristocratic fin-de-siècle spirit, influenced by French, German and British literature. Unlike his contemporaries, the symbolists Maurice Maeterlinck, Georges Rodenbach and Charles Van Lerberghe, Van de Woestijne chose to write in Dutch, which was not obvious at the time. In 1904 Karel moved to Sint-Amandsberg (Ghent) and five years later Gustave too left the village on the River Lys to settle in Leuven. This pencil portrait from 1910 is one of the best known portraits of Karel. At the time, the writer was living in rue de Cologne in Brussels. At any rate, that is where I drew his portrait, (this portrait de face, with his gag à la Verhaeren, and with his beard),' Gustave writes in his memoirs Karel en ik (Charles and I), an autobiographical text of which the museum owns the manuscript. It was reproduced many times as an appendix to magazines. The photolithography process ensured its wide distribution, so that this picture of Karel, at the height of his fame, could be seen in many living rooms.