Christel, resident:
Of course, lots of elements in The Baths at Ostend are invented. Ensor turned bathing into a caricature, a Bruegelian scene full of folly and madness. A child propels a sailboat forward with his farts. There is a clown in the water. A fish is sailing in a clog. But here and there, the scenes are more real than you might think. Look at the man on the right, for example.
The bucket on his head is not a sign of madness, like the funnel on the clown’s head. He is a bathing guide, or a guide-baigneur as they were called. He or she asked 50 centimes to help bathers enjoy a safe and healthy bathing experience.
The bathing guides first used the bucket to treat their customers to a refreshing shower. That was to administer the healthy shock effect of the cold seawater. But if they also had to hold people in the waves afterwards - 9 out of 10 people couldn’t swim then - well, they had nowhere to put their bucket. So they had to put it on their head! Just look at the print and photograph from our city archives, Ensor didn’t make this up. Except for the hold. Because the way the bathing guide laughingly pulls the woman towards his hip would have been less acceptable.