Jan Verhas, Donkey Ride on the Beach at Heist-aan-Zee, 1884

by Atelier Liesjes

Donkeys carrying children are making their way across a wet beach, led by boys walking alongside them. At the front left, a girl in an ochre-coloured coat and a straw hat is walking through the wet sand, holding her skirt up. Next to her, a boy in a brown jacket and a cap is leading a dark-coloured donkey on which two girls in blue dresses are sitting. In the centre, a young woman in a pale pink dress and a white hat sits sideways on a donkey, the hem with red embroidery draped over its flank. On the right, a second boy leads a white-spotted animal, on which sits a girl in a dark blue lace-trimmed outfit. Behind them, more donkeys and walkers are making their way along the tide line; to the right, the facades of Heist loom into view. The wet sand reflects the animals’ legs; the sky is pearly grey with pink clouds. Verhas paints this as a summer scene, with an eye for the fashion of the moment: the hats, the collars, the ribbons. There is no moral and no narrative, only the movement of an outing. The technique is realistic, with a loose, swift touch in the sand and the sky and a precise finish in the faces. The palette is cool and silver-grey in the distance and warmer in tone in the clothing: ochre, carmine, ivory white and sage green. Jan Verhas (Dendermonde 1834 – Schaarbeek 1896) was a Belgian painter who studied at the academies of Dendermonde, Antwerp and Paris and made a name for himself with elegant genre scenes. From the 1870s onwards, he often worked on the coast, in Heist and Blankenberge, where he captured bathers and beach life. His signature, dated 1884, appears in the bottom right-hand corner. A sunny, narrative work for a home that loves the coast.