In the face of every movement that swept the art world during the first half of the twentieth century, Belgian artist Jean Brusselmans (1884 - 1953) constructed an obstinately idiosyncratic oeuvre starring the rolling landscape and village life of Belgian Brabant.

The Gemeentemuseum is now mounting the first full-scale exhibition of this major artist’s work to be held outside Belgium for many years. Around forty paintings will be on show, mainly dating from the 1930s and ’40s and including a number of previously undiscovered gems from private collections.

While his immediate contemporaries – artists like Rik Wouters, Constant Permeke and Gustave De Smet – made their names as leaders of a new avant-garde in Belgian painting f...