After the storm

This canvas of 1880 catches the moment after a morning squall on the North Sea, when the sun breaks through again. The clouds are still heavy, lit pink and rust, and a few sails stand on the dark water below them. Ensor had known that sea since childhood. The family house on the Langestraat in Ostend backed onto a town canal with the sea dike just beyond it, and a later home stood about 50 metres from the dike. The Flemish museums that hold his work count this among the first fully realised paintings he made after breaking off his training at the Brussels academy. A few years later, in the large sunset seascape of 1885 that also belongs to Mu.ZEE, the wet, restless air of this picture gave way to a slower, more deliberate Impressionist handling of light.