The Anchor c. 1935

Victor De Wilde created this etching called 'The Anchor', sometime in the mid-twentieth century. The image foregrounds the ship’s anchor, an instrument of both security and immobility. Two sailors are visible near the ship’s railing, rendered less clearly than the anchor itself. The nautical theme reminds us of Belgium’s relationship to the sea, and the country’s reliance on its port cities for trade and exchange. De Wilde, who trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, was part of a generation of artists who were interested in the working classes. The etching technique was well-suited for the production of images accessible to a wider public. This work is a social document of sorts, an artifact from a specific time and place with all its economic and institutional influences. To understand a work like this more fully, we might look into the history of Antwerp as a port city or the curriculum of the Royal Academy at that time. What we learn from art is always dependent on its social and institutional context.