Ostend Harbour

Around 1900, the harbour at Ostend held two ages of shipping at once. The town's first steam trawler had been launched in 1884, and over the following decades steam gradually pushed sail out of the Belgian fishing fleet. Both are in this picture. On the left, tall masts with their crossed yards crowd together, and on the right the red fishing boats carry smokestacks between their masts. Ensor paints none of it with a marine painter's precision. The hulls melt into pinks, yellows and pale greens, the water is a mirror of the same colours, and the sky is a thick crust of white scraped through with streaks of blue. The Antwerp museum dates the canvas to 1900 or 1904. It has been there since 1924, when it arrived with the collection of Alphonse Aerts.