VIEW OF THE OLD MILL

Painter of landscapes, genre scenes, interiors, religious and biblical scenes and local customs; etcher, painter of pastels and watercolourist.

Jakob Smits was born in Rotterdam in 1856 and died in Mol in 1928. In 1876 he enrolled at the Academy of Decorative Arts in Brussels. Later on, he studied in Munich and Warsaw. In 1895, he returned to Belgium and was naturalised in 1900.

Smits was a master painter who captived both the Flemish and the Dutch Masters. He was inspired by the deepest and the purest mystical feelings. Most of his biblical subjects are transposed into the poor neglected areas of the Campine around Antwerp.

He was also an original and powerful watercolourist artist. His etchings show great emotion and poetry. In short, his art is extremely human and personal.

In 1911, he published an album of his most unusual etchings with a preface by Georges Eekhout.