James Ensor, *The Oarsman*, 1883

by Atelier Liesjes

"A man in a dark blue, almost black sailing jacket and a soft sou’wester is sitting in a wooden rowing boat, holding the oars with both hands. His face is red from the wind; his gaze is directed to one side, towards something just outside the frame. He has a red scarf round his neck. The boat is shown from the front and side: grey-green painted wood, dull benches, a red number painted on the bow, and at the bottom a pool of water against which the hull stands out darkly. The oars cut diagonally across the picture, lending the scene a strikingly low viewpoint. Behind him lies a grey-green sea, with a small two-masted ship in the distance to the left, hovering above the horizon like a faint sketch.
The colour palette is extremely restrained: grey-green, slate grey, umber, black and the occasional red accent. Ensor applies the paint in broad, dry strokes, here and there almost transparent, so that the canvas itself remains visible. No heroics, no storm: the rower is a labourer on the water, alone with his boat and his hands. The atmosphere is that of the Flemish coast on a windless, gloomy day, and the style is realistic with impressionistic traits, akin to the work of the Hague School and to Manet’s seascapes.
James Ensor (Ostend 1860, Ostend 1949) spent virtually his entire life on the Belgian coast and painted the sea, the harbour and the fishermen with a tenacity that his contemporaries found strange. From Ostend, in the back room above his parents’ shop, he developed his own distinctive, dark colour palette that was only later recognised as groundbreaking. The dark figure set against the light water is a motif he would subsequently revisit countless times. This early, understated portrait of a fisherman is a powerful work suited to an interior with a sea view."