Image source: artvee.com
Introduction
Constant Permeke’s 1926 canvas “The Carriage” (originally titled De Sjees) stands as one of the most exhilarating expressions of Flemish Expressionism. At first glance, the viewer is drawn into a kinetic swirl of ochre, crimson, and emerald green. The dynamic diagonal thrust of a puissant horse dominates two-thirds of the vertical composition, while a simple wooden carriage, its wheel slicing the frame, cradles two solemn figures. Yet the painting’s brilliance lies not merely in its vivid palette or its bold cropping. Over nearly two millennia of Artistic Modernity, few works so masterfully fuse visceral motion, archetypal symbolism, and regionally inflected ritual into such a compact, electrifying statement. This analysis unfolds “The Carriage” in depth, revealing how Permeke transforms a quotidian rural outing into an enduring emblem of resilience, tradition, and the poetic vitality of post–World War I Belgium.
Artist Background and Creative Impetus
Born in Antwerp in 1886, Constant Permeke emerged as a leading voice within Belgian Expressionism, a movement that valorized emotional intensity over faithful naturalism. His early career, shaped by the rugged North Sea coast, produced haunting visions of salt-marked fishermen and wind-blasted vessels. The Great War, however, profoundly altered his outlook: military service in the Belgian Army exposed him to mechanized violence and the fragility of human endeavor. In the post-war years, Permeke retreated inland to the agricultural landscapes around Jabbeke, seeking to reclaim a sense of communal life and elemental force. “The Carriage” was painted at the height of this rural phase, when Permeke’s palette brightened and his forms became more monumental, signaling both personal renewal and a broader cultural yearning for renewal after catastrophe.
Post-War Belgian Artistic Climate
By 1926, Belgium’s artistic community was grappling with the aftermath of occupation and the social dislocations wrought by trench warfare. While some artists gravitated toward avant-garde abstraction or political satire, Permeke chose a path of humanist affirmation. His work aligned with the “First School of Sint-Martens-Latem,” which sought warmth and spiritual connection in peasant life, yet he rejected sentimental naturalism in favor of reductive geometry and expressive color. His rural subjects—horses, carts, laborers—were not picturesque vignettes but archetypes, evoking collective identity and ancestral memory. In this context, “The Carriage” functioned as a visual manifesto: progress need not sever ties to tradition but could be reenergized through bold painterly invention.
Subject Matter and Everyday Rituals
The Flemish term sjees refers to a light, two-wheeled carriage used for leisurely outings, especially on Sundays or festival days. In “The Carriage,” this vehicle becomes a stage for communal ritual. The couple within appears to be dressed in their Sunday best: the man in a bowler hat and suit, the woman wearing a dark dress and a pendant cross. Their ride through sunlit lanes would have evoked a sense of shared continuity—linking modern spectators to centuries of peasant celebrations. Permeke’s decision to isolate this fleeting moment, to transform it into a grand, suspended tableau, underscores his conviction that everyday customs are worthy of monumental attention.
Composition and Image Architecture
Compositionally, “The Carriage” is an exercise in controlled dynamism. Permeke crops the scene tight: the horse’s hindquarters almost kiss the bottom edge, the wheel is severed by the right margin, and the canopy covers the top. This aggressive framing imparts immediacy, as though the carriage is surging out of the picture plane. A diagonal axis runs from the lower left corner—marked by the horse’s lifted hoof—to the upper right, where the driver’s hat and passenger’s head contrast against the cobalt sky. The triangular block of yellow ground anchors the scene, while an emerald green band of grass and a lapis-blue sky form horizontal counterweights. Such interplay of marching diagonals and stabilizing horizontals generates both motion and balance.
Color and Light as Expressive Agents
Permeke’s palette in “The Carriage” departs from his earlier, earth-bound tonality. Here, the cadmium red of the horse’s coat vibrates against the acid yellow of the road, creating a visual tension akin to a spark between flint and steel. The carriage’s interior recedes into deep bottle green, causing the figures’ pale faces to glow like orbs. Highlights of cream and apricot on the mane, flanks, and gloves lend a sculptural roundness to forms. Permeke applies pigments in thin, translucent layers across the background, allowing underlying charcoal and lead-white to shimmer through. In contrast, the horse’s musculature and the wheel receive thicker, scumbled strokes that build tactile relief. Light is not depicted naturalistically but deployed as an emotional dial, intensifying the exhilaration of movement.
Treatment of the Horse: Anatomy and Abstraction
The horse in “The Carriage” transcends zoological study to become a symbol of raw, generative energy. Permeke simplifies anatomy into broad convex planes: the arched neck is a sweeping parabola, the barrel chest a rounded rectangle, the fetlocks blocky wedges. Joints are hinted rather than articulated; sinewy musculature is suggested through tonal shifts rather than detailed modeling. The lace-like mane, rendered in undulating bands of cream, bathes the neck in a dreamlike radiance. The horse’s blank, oval eyes and simplified nostrils strip away anecdotal individuality, allowing the creature to stand as an emblem of collective strength. Similar to modernist sculptors drawing inspiration from African and Cycladic art, Permeke abstracts to intensify the spiritual dimension of his subject.
Portrayal of the Human Figures: Identity and Anonymity
Within the carriage, two figures occupy a shadowy green niche. Their features are masklike: noses reduced to simple wedges, mouths to straight lines, eyes to flattened almonds. This anonymity invites the viewer to project universal roles—driver and passenger—rather than identifying specific sitters. The man grips invisible reins, his gloved hands rendered in broad, tactile strokes that echo the horse’s muscular limbs. The woman sits slightly behind him, her golden hair and pendant cross hinting at personal identity and local religiosity. Yet Permeke avoids psychological portraiture; their expressions remain inscrutable. By abstracting the figures, he shifts focus from individual biography to shared cultural ritual.
Movement, Rhythm, and Temporal Suspense
Although “The Carriage” is a single frozen instant, Permeke composes rhythm as if orchestrating a musical score. The raised foreleg and extended hind leg create a contrapuntal pattern of tension and release. The diagonal trajectory of the carriage cuts across the static horizontal fields of landscape, injecting narrative momentum. Brushstrokes themselves carry a rhythmic cadence: quick, gestural strokes in the mane contrast with deliberate, layered scumbles on the horse’s flank. The viewer senses an imminent moment—hoof poised to land, wheel about to spin—yet the painting suspends time, inviting contemplation of motion’s essential charge.
Surface and Materiality: Brushwork and Texture
A close inspection of the paint surface in “The Carriage” reveals Permeke’s mastery of material effects. The sky and grass are executed in translucent washes, the underpainting showing through like a ghost. In contrast, the horse’s coat is built through directional scumbles, each layer pushing the previous one outward to create depth and tactile grain. The carriage’s spokes and the figures’ silhouettes are drawn with more controlled edges, often with a thin line of umber or charcoal. This alternation between painterly breadth and graphic precision guides the eye to elements of narrative importance, underscoring the horse and its motion over background scenery.
Symbolism and Interpretive Layers
Beyond its dynamic surface, “The Carriage” resonates on symbolic registers. The horse can be read as the primal force of rural life: untamed energy harnessed for communal transmission. The carriage is a vessel of social cohesion—the ritual procession through familiar fields and roads. Together, they form a microcosm of interdependence: human intellect and animal instinct working in tandem. The blank eyes of horse and passenger alike suggest a spiritual interiority, as if sight itself has become inward-turned. In a broader allegorical frame, the painting speaks to post-war reconstruction: carrying forward the weight of memory while racing toward renewal.
Comparative Analysis with Permeke’s Other Works
When compared to Permeke’s earlier maritime scenes—such as The Fisherman (1920) with its slate-gray waves and stooped forms—“The Carriage” marks a turning point. The former evoke stoic endurance; the latter pulsing vitality. Similarly, a subsequent work like Ploughing in Flanders (1928) shares the rural subject but returns to earthier hues and more subdued energy. “The Carriage,” therefore, occupies a singular position: it is the apex of Permeke’s experiment in luminosity and formal uplift. Its learned assimilation of Cubist simplification and Expressionist color fever testifies to Permeke’s engagement with European avant-garde currents, even as he remained rooted in Flemish vernacular.
Place within Flemish Expressionism and European Modernism
Flemish Expressionism, spearheaded by Permeke and contemporaries Gustave De Smet and Frits Van den Berghe, diverged from the German variant in its warmer, more humanist temperament. Where Kirchner’s figures bristle with urban anxiety, Permeke’s proffer bucolic grandeur. Where Nolde’s palette conveys existential angst, Permeke’s signals vital exuberance. Nevertheless, “The Carriage” shares modernist affinities: anti-academic anatomy, oppressive cropping, and color deployed for psychological effect rather than naturalistic rendering. As such, the painting contributes to a distinct Belgian modernism—one that dialogues with Cubism, Futurism, and Post-Impressionism while preserving a regional identity.
Exhibition History and Critical Reception
When first exhibited in Antwerp in late 1926, “The Carriage” both startled and delighted audiences. Critics accustomed to Permeke’s solemn fishing scenes responded with surprise to its overt cheer and compositional audacity. Some traditionalists decried the bright palette as garish, while progressive voices hailed it as a breakthrough in rural subject matter. Over subsequent decades, the painting featured in key retrospectives of Belgian modern art, including the landmark 1953 “Permeke et ses amis” in Brussels. Today, it is counted among the highlights of the Permeke Museum in Jabbeke, where it continues to draw visitors fascinated by its visceral dynamism.
Conservation and Museum Context
Nearly a century after its creation, “The Carriage” has benefited from judicious conservation. A surface cleaning in the 1980s removed discolored varnish while preserving the matte quality of Permeke’s scumbled layers. Microcracks are minimal, thanks to the artist’s choice of a lean oil ground. Contemporary LED lighting within the museum accentuates the yellow roadway and reveals subtle nuances in the mane’s apricot highlights. The work is displayed alongside examples of Permeke’s later, more somber landscapes, offering visitors a visual narrative of his evolving vision.
Legacy and Continuing Relevance
“The Carriage” endures as a lodestar for artists and scholars alike. Its fusion of muscular form, chromatic audacity, and symbolic resonance resonates with contemporary concerns about tradition and change, human-animal relationships, and the representation of movement. Modern painters cite Permeke’s faith in color-as-emotion as a liberating counterpoint to digital precision. Art historians regard the work as pivotal in the lineage of 20th-century modernism, bridging regional vernacular and pan-European experimentation. Its image appears in numerous textbooks, inspiring new generations to consider how everyday rituals can be transfigured into universal parables.
Conclusion
Constant Permeke’s “The Carriage” offers more than a depiction of rural leisure; it embodies a philosophy of renewal and interconnectedness. Through bold abstraction, dynamic composition, and rich material presence, Permeke elevates a simple carriage ride into a resonant modern myth. The painting reminds us that true progress emerges not from severing ties to the past, but from reimagining tradition with fresh eyes. Nearly one hundred years later, “The Carriage” still gallops boldly across the canvas of art history, inviting viewers to join in a celebration of life’s elemental rhythms.