Visser tussen het paalwerk 1896

Omer Coppens created this print of a fisherman among wooden pilings. Coppens was born in Belgium, a country whose coastal communities have long depended on the sea for their livelihoods. Here, the artist shows us a solitary figure, back turned, on a pier, the tools of his trade visible. This man is physically separated from us by the structure of the pier, but is also divided by class. Coppens, as an artist, had the time to represent the act of labor, while the fisherman is caught in the act of labor itself. Coppens has created a character study, and an image of a man tethered to the sea, and to labor, for his very survival. The emotional weight of the work lies in this tension between industry and representation, the subject, and the viewer.