Red Roofs (The Village)

Private collection Amsterdam

When Constant Permeke settled in Jabbeke in 1929, his focus shifted from the sea and the fishing community to the rural interior. In this new environment he found a powerful artistic renewal. The small villages around Jabbeke inspired compact, monumental compositions in which houses, roofs and church towers are brought together as strong, sculptural volumes.

In Red Roofs (The Village) Permeke abstracts the village of Jabbeke into a cohesive interplay of rhythm and colour. The bright red roofs and the white walls introduce a rhythmic pulse throughout the composition, creating a dynamic counterpoint to the clear blue sky. The geometrically simplified forms give the architecture a palpable physicality. The driveway leading to the château — still visible on the right side of the painting and now known as the Permekelaan — is observed from the artist’s studio and rendered with a monumental emphasis, particularly in the treatment of the tree that acts as a strong vertical axis structuring the pictorial space.
This approach closely aligns with Het fantastisch dorp (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, 1932) and stands stylistically nearer to these early Jabbeke years than to the later, more atmospheric Dorp in de lente (Village in Spring, Van Abbemuseum, 1936).

Comparable works in public and private collections:
Het fantastisch dorp, 1932, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (The Netherlands), inv. 1689 (MK)
Dorp in de lente, 1936, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (The Netherlands), inv. 381
Het dorp Jabbeke, 1938, Collection D. Yolanda Pentenado Mortazarro, São Paulo (Brazil)
Jabbeke, Belgian Senate, Brussels, s.n.

De Ridder, A., Constant Permeke (1887-1952) (Brussel: Paleis der Academiën, 1953), 46, nr. 41 (comp.).
Van den Bussche, W., Hulde aan / Hommage à Permeke, tent.cat. (Knokke-Heist: Casino, 1975).
Van den Bussche, W., Retrospectieve Permeke, tent. cat. (Oostende: PMMK, 1986), nr. 151 (comp.).
Van den Bussche, W., Permeke (Antwerpen: Mercatorfonds, 1986), nr. 151 (comp.).
Van den Bussche, W., Constant Permeke Retrospectief (Brussel: Bozar, 2012), nr. 105, 107 (comp.)