De Clerck studied sculpture at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in his native city of Ghent (Belgium). He subsequently was made a member of the Royal Society of Fine Arts of Belgium. Early on De Clerck's sculptures show an impressionist spirit. However during the 1920s and 1930s De Clerck championed the Cubist and Art Deco styles along with the Expressionist movement in Belgium.
He worked as a curator at the Ostende Musée des Beaux-Arts (Belgium) for many years where, alongside with the Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, there are prominent examples of his work.