Tine, resident:
Hello, I am Tine from the art gallery Artine. I am now also immortalised on my facade, in the guise of the clown with the parasol in The Baths at Ostend. That 1890 artwork is a masterpiece, for sure. But many people wonder whether it is actually a drawing or a painting. Well, it’s both, so everyone is right.
The work was created on a wooden panel measuring 37 cm by 45 cm. So, it’s not that big. Ensor first applied a base layer using a white stain and on top of that he used both pen, pencil and oil paint. A drawn painting or a painted drawing, call it what you like. The pen and pencils were of course much handier for all the fine lines. A brush would have made it much trickier to paint all those figures.
To complicate matters further, there are different versions of The Baths. Take note, there are six. Two: our famous painting. Three: a pen drawing in black ink on tracing paper. Four: an etching from 1899. Five: a coloured version of the same etching. Six: an oil painting on canvas from 1926. There are subtle differences between all the versions, but in the last painting in particular, all the joy is gone. Many beachgoers have turned into skeletons, and in the corner one is even smoking a cigarette.