Handelsdokken te Oostende 1924

Léon Spilliaert made this brooding pastel drawing of the docks in Oostende, with its expressive mark making, sometime in the early twentieth century. There’s a real sense of process in the way Spilliaert builds up the image from simple colour blocks. I love the feeling of stillness and melancholy in this piece. The muted tones and simplified shapes create a dreamlike atmosphere, like a memory half-forgotten. The surface is velvety and matte, built up with layers of pigment to give real depth of tone. In particular, the figure walking along the dockside is so haunting, a symbol perhaps of human presence against the vastness of the industrial port. It seems as though the water and sky are about to envelop them. I see a connection between the Belgian Symbolists like Spilliaert and contemporary artists such as Peter Doig. Both evoke a sense of place that is both familiar and deeply unsettling. Like all great art, it leaves you with more questions than answers.