Interieur en Campine - Kempish interior

Although born in Rotterdam of Dutch parentage, Jakob Smits was one of the more important, even if more individualistic, figures in modern Belgian painting. It was only after 1900 that Smits began to concentrate seriously on the use of oil having hitherto concerned himself chiefly with drawing in pastel and charcoal. Light was one of Smits' chief preoccupations and he developed a means of expressing interior luminosity by applying a large number of superimposed paint layers. 'Smits was never part of a school or group but remained relatively isolated, pursuing that aspect of symbolism which had to do with the mystery of light and the inner life of man expressed through images of simple, elemental folk'.(P. Mertens, Belgian Art 1880-1914, The Brooklyn Museum, New York 1980, p. 150)

Enrique Mistler and Marta Franck had a large collection works by Jakob Smits. In 1926 they donated two works to Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp.