Constant Permeke (1886 – 1952) was a Belgian painter and sculptor who is considered the leading Flemish Expressionist.
His father was a landscape painter who founded and directed the Municipal Museum of Arts in Ostend.
He studied at the Academy of Bruges and the Academy in Ghent. He served in the Belgian army and was wounded. He was hospitalized in the United Kingdom and when he was cured, he was reunited with his family.
After the end of the World War I he returned with his wife and son to Ostend.
His work focuses on landscapes and scenes from the lives of farmers and fishermen and is characterized by his heavy brushwork and gains its expressive power through muted tonality and violent forms.
In 1937 he began to make sculptures, mainly of female nudes.
