Explore the Description of this artwork.
A young woman enjoys a gastronomic feast at a table set for two. It is Ensor's sister, Mitche (Mariette). The absence of her table companion is not alarming. The carelessly left napkin suggests that he has only just left the table. Perhaps it was the artist himself who wanted to portray the scene. He placed his easel on the right, close to the table. The scene is set in their parental home in Ostend, which can still be visited today as the Ensor House Museum. It was built in 1874 and looked like most bourgeois houses of the time. It had two shops on the ground floor and a few rooms for rent. The furniture with some books is still part of the current Ensor house museum.The oyster-eater belongs to the series that he named The Burger Salon. That was a series of moments in the life of the small-town bourgeoisie. Compared to earlier works, the richer material differentiation is striking. In The Oyster Eater, Ensor set to work with light colours. The illusion of sunshine is created by the red, yellow and orange hues in the work. It is the bright color of its mature years. It soon becomes clear that the artist did not want to make an unambiguous portrait of his sister in her familiar environment. After all, he seems to lose himself in the endless variation, nuance, repetition and contrast of colours. One time he spreads the paint thinly and smoothly, the other time he opts for heavy, masonry stains that he applies with a palette knife.
The Oyster Eater