Soir sur la dune, Mariakerke-sur-Mer

The painting Soir sur la dune, Mariakerke-sur-Mer, made by the Ghent painter and en-graver Albert Baertsoen (1866-1922) was acquired, at the request of the Mu.Zee, by the Orcona Fund, managed by the King Baudouin Foundation. This Ostend museum is devot-ed entirely to Belgian art from 1880 to the present time, but prior to this acquisition lacked any work by Albert Baertsoen in its collection.

A feeling of being at the Belgian coast

This large-format oil painting represents a very beautiful view of the seaside village of Mariakerke-sur-Mer, made by the Belgian artist Albert Baertsoen (1866-1922) at the end of the 19th century. The village church, its cemetery and some neighbouring houses are seen from a dune that the artist has painted in the foreground, thereby providing the perspective of the landscape. Baertsoen painted this scene at a precise moment of the day, in early evening, a moment when there is a very typical light at the coast that creates a range of warm golden hues between the shadows. This particular moment enabled the artist to give a very special atmosphere to the picturesque scene.

Enriching the Mu.ZEE collections

This painting was acquired at the specific request of the Mu.ZEE in Ostend. It was crucial for the museum to acquire – and temporarily exhibit – a work by Albert Baertsoen, and more particularly this Soir sur la dune, Mariakerke-sur-Mer (Evening on the Dune at Mariakerke-sur-Mer). The museum, which is devoted entirely to Belgian art from 1880 to the present day, previously had no works by Baertsoen, although it did have works by James Ensor and Anna Boch representing the same place, Mariakerke. Now, the three works featuring the same subject create an interesting dialogue on this poetic scene, one that Ensor had already reproduced in an engraving in 1880.

Albert Baertsoen and James Ensor

Albert Baertsoen was born to a well-off family in Ghent and received his artistic education from the Ghent artists Gustave Den Duyts and Jean Delvin. From 1885, Baertsoen took part in group exhibitions of the Brussels artistic circle L’Essor and was in contact with artists from the Termonde School. His painting oscillated between Symbolism and Impressionism, developing as he made various encounters until it reached a more recognizable style by 1890. In 1892, he organized an exhibition at the Pulchri Studio in the Hague, together with Emile Claus and Constantin Meunier. From this time on, we also find Baertsoen in end-of-the-century Parisian artistic circles, as well as with artists exhibiting at the Libre Esthétique in Brussels, the Biennale of Venice and the Secession in Munich and Vienna. However, it was above all with James Ensor that he maintained a friendship after they met in Ostend and with whom he founded the Cercle des Beaux-Arts. Now, thanks to the acquisition of Baertsoen’s Soir sur la dune, Mariakerke-sur-Mer, the friends are once more rubbing shoulders.