Iconic
A young woman eats oysters and drinks fine wine. The table is set for two, but the chair opposite her is empty and a carelessly abandoned napkin lies next to a bright yellow lemon. Her absent fellow diner has obviously been enjoying the different wines too. Who was he or she? Ensor himself, perhaps, before retreating behind his easel? It doesn’t really matter, in fact: as far as the artist was concerned, experiment and innovation are more important here than the underlying narrative. The finished result has become an iconic work in the history of Belgian modern art.
Ensor’s sister
The woman at the table is Ensor’s sister Mitche, who is enjoying her taste of the good life in a room at their parents’ house in Ostend. Connoisseurs have pored over the scene for years. Does the empty chair signify some kind of drama? Do the oysters have erotic connotations? Is Ensor suggesting a young woman who yearns for different kinds of pleasure? Not if the artist’s friend and promoter Emile Verhaeren is to be believed. According to him, the painting is a still life. And maybe it is: Ensor initially called the work In the Land of Colour – a name that reflects the repetition, variation and contrast of the colours and the way the artist applies the paint smoothly and thinly in one place, while positively trowelling it on in another.
