Jakob Smits, Hooiwagen

by Atelier Liesjes

A farmyard in the Kempen, with three farmhouses side by side. The walls are whitewashed, the roofs thick and dark brown, made of thatch or weathered tiles; on the right, a red door can be seen in a brick façade, and a green tree stands next to the chimney. The sky above is a streaked expanse of cream-white and ochre-yellow, criss-crossed by thin, horizontal bands of cloud. In front of the middle house stands a hay cart: a wide, low cart on two heavy wooden wheels, laden with a tall, round load of yellow-green hay. A light-grey horse is harnessed to it, its neck arched and wearing a harness of straps. On the left stands a small man in a blue-black coat by a reddish-brown brick pillar; a little further on, a wooden bench leans against the wall. Two tall, dark conifers mark the left-hand edge. A narrow passageway can be seen between the houses, with another wall and a tree beyond it. Smits depicts farm life without romantic embellishment, yet without harshness either: the colours are earthy and warm, featuring ochre, umber, moss green and off-white. The paint is applied thickly and grainily, so that the hay and the roofs almost seem tangible. The composition is that of a genre piece, but the austere, almost geometric arrangement of roofs and walls lends the scene a monumental quality, akin to the Symbolism of his Flemish contemporaries. The hay is painted with short, thick strokes, almost like a sculpture in paint. Jakob Smits (Rotterdam 1855 – Achterbos near Mol 1928) settled in the Kempen in 1888 and became the central figure of the Mol School. He chose rural life as his subject and worked with a palette knife and thick paint; his work is on display, amongst other places, at the Jakob Smits Museum in Mol. He is regarded as a forerunner of Flemish Expressionism. A warm, down-to-earth scene for a country home.