26. Walter Vaes
Fish arranged on a plate in front of the mirror, a crab on its back and a fish cut into pieces: all paintings by Walter Vaes.
Vaes grew up in a family of artists, amid architects, painters and musicians. He trained at the Antwerp Academy and in 1904, barely 22 years old, he won the important Prix de Rome. He used the prize money to travel to Italy, and later he also went to Germany, Spain, Turkey and Egypt. In 1905, he co-founded the Antwerp artists' association Kunst van Heden, founded by the important patron François Franck, who would become one of Ensor's major collectors.
Vaes mainly painted portraits, including of Ensor, and still lifes, many featuring floral arrangements. He was also a good etcher. However, while Modernism was gaining in popularity, Vaes remained on the sidelines as a solitary artist. His still lifes look quite traditional, but are extraordinary nevertheless.
His unostentatious, almost minimalist still lifes are particularly noteworthy. Clean close-ups, with beautiful colours and textures, demand the viewer's attention. Unlike in a traditional still life, Vaes often shows things not frontally and theatrically, but from an unexpected perspective, such as from above. Crab is a striking example of this. Like Ensor's Skate, it lies on its back and seems to stare at you like a face. The work evokes a sense of revulsion, as if the pungent smell could overwhelm you at any moment. Vaes revealed this penchant for the monstrous to full effect in his etchings, with gruesome creatures reminiscent of Bosch and Bruegel.
His oeuvre includes two remarkable works featuring a red gurnard. In both, he uses a mirror to add visual complexity to the image. In one work it is positioned so that the painting shows the two sides of the fish. In the other, he turns the mirror so that the two fish look you straight in the eye.