Latemstraat 43, Sint-Martens-Latem

On 29 January 1900 Karel van de Woestijne moved from Ghent to the countryside. After a short stay in Bellem (near Aalter) he lived from April 1900 to February 1904, and again from May 1905 to October 1906, at Sint-Martens-Latem, Latemstraat 16 (now 43) and Latemstraat 7 (now 16). The Laethemsche brieven over de Lente to Adolf Herckenrath (1901) and the poetry collections De boom-gaard der vogelen en der fruit (1905) and De gulden schaduw (1910) were partly inspired here. In Latem runs a brothers Van de Woestijne path (7 km), which starts at the Town Hall. A stone plaque at Latemstraat 16 commemorates the stay of Karel and Gustave.

Karel van de Woestijne lived for a while with the printer-painter Jules de Praetere and with his brother the painter Gustave van de Woestyne: "We are all over: since yesterday Jules [de Praetere] and I live permanently here, in Sinte Martens-Laethem, on the Lys. (...) Boy, this is where we're going to work. (...) It's really so good here. You're in your own country. You'll soon know everything like old friends. And then you start painting, or poetry: it is no longer work here, but the expression of a natural function" (letter to Lode Ontrop, 20 April 1900).

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