Life and work

Jan De Smedt (1905–1954) was a painter and sculptor from Mechelen. His brother-in-law and sculptor Theo Blickx, who was thirty years his senior, gave Jan private lessons. He went on to study at the Fine Arts Academy of Mechelen and subsequently that of Brussels, under Égide Rombaux and Victor Rousseau. Jan De Smedt trained in drawing and sculpture before becoming also a painter. His view of the world would stay as much two-dimensional as three-dimensional.

In 1939, Jan De Smedt married Camilla Van Peteghem and became a drawing teacher at the Mechelen Academy, a post he held until his death in 1954.