Jacques Rosseels, The Dunes of Het Zoute near Knokke, 1883

by Atelier Liesjes

Low dunes stretch out beneath a heavy, grey-blue sky. Halfway up the slope stands a row of small houses: whitewashed façades with red-tiled roofs and chimneys, a barn with a roof of branches and turf, and, on the far right, a few more red roofs rising above the scrub. In the foreground, marram grass, creeping willow and thorny bushes grow in shades of ochre, moss green and rust brown; a narrow sandy path winds its way between the tufts. A small figure in dark clothes walks along it alone. Behind the clouds hangs a pale, almost hidden sun, casting a warm yellow light over one spot of the landscape. The houses are small and austere, without embellishment, and seem to belong to the landscape rather than stand out against it. Rosseels paints the coast not as a holiday resort but as a barren, unyielding landscape. The colours are subdued: grey, umber, muted green and the occasional touch of red. The paint is applied thinly and loosely, with short strokes in the vegetation and a long, evenly painted sky. That sky transitions from a heavy, dark section at the top to a pale, almost white-grey hue at the horizon. The style is realist, akin to the School of Tervuren and to the nineteenth-century Flemish landscape tradition, in which the atmosphere of the weather takes precedence over detail. Jacques Rosseels (Antwerp 1828 – Antwerp 1912) was a Belgian landscape painter who worked along the Scheldt, in the Kempen and on the coast. He painted en plein air and preferred the quiet, grey moments of the day. His canvases are characterised by a restrained palette and a keen sense of atmosphere. He was one of the first to treat the dunes and polders of the coastal region as subjects in their own right. A sober, atmospheric work for a tranquil interior.