The baths at Ostend

The baths in Ostend has the character of a painted drawing, worked out in the nonchalant and improvising manner that was characteristic of him. The work has a special artistic value, partly due to the effect of the preparation layer that Ensor allowed to play a part in the depiction of the popular pastime of fashionable bathers. It is a sparkling, satirical and striking sketch of the fin de siècle madness in the most important Belgian coastal city around 1900. The work is considered one of the crowd pleasers in the artist's oeuvre. There is also an etching of the image from 1899, also in the Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, which strangely enough does not show a mirror image. The painting was included in the Top Items List of works of art which the Flemish Community protected by decree, partly to prevent them from leaving the country unnoticed. It was acquired by the Flemish Community in 2011 and given on loan to MSK.