Portrait of Professor Fabrice Polderman
Artist / maker
Gustave van de Woestyne (painters (artists))Date
1919Period
20th centuryCollection
Museum of Fine Arts Ghent
In February 1919, Fabrice Polderman (1885-1948) commissioned Gustave Van de Woestyne for this portrait. Both had found refuge in Wales at the beginning of the First World War, as had numerous Belgian refugees including artists such as Emile Claus, George Minne and Valerius De Saedeleer. At the end of 1919, Polderman was appointed professor of German language and literature at…
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In February 1919, Fabrice Polderman (1885-1948) commissioned Gustave Van de Woestyne for this portrait. Both had found refuge in Wales at the beginning of the First World War, as had numerous Belgian refugees including artists such as Emile Claus, George Minne and Valerius De Saedeleer. At the end of 1919, Polderman was appointed professor of German language and literature at the University of Ghent and returned to Belgium. As head of the cabinet in the Ministry of Arts and Sciences, he also played an important role in the 1920s in the Dutchification of the University of Ghent. Van de Woestyne also returned to Belgium in 1919. The portrait of Fabrice Polderman is one of the last paintings he made in England. It shows us a shrewd man, his penetrating gaze fixed on the spectator in an inquisitive manner.
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