Return of the Fishermen
- Artist
- Frans Masereel, Belgian, 1889–1972
- Date
- 1928
- Material
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Current Location
- On View, Gallery 213
- Dimensions
- 38 1/4 x 51 3/8 in. (97.2 x 130.5 cm)
framed: 43 3/4 x 56 5/8 in. (111.1 x 143.8 cm) - Credit Line
- Gift of Morton D. May
- Rights
- Contact Us
- Object Number
- 277:1952
NOTES
The smokestacks of ships loom over the French city of Boulogne and spew exhaust into its polluted air. Below, fishermen trudge home through dark streets past a woman who the artist has posed to suggest she is a prostitute. Boulogne’s seedy port attracted Frans Masereel, who admired the tenacity of the people he met there. His primary medium of black-and-white woodcut inspired the painting’s blocky, jagged shapes and dark colors, which invest his subjects with dignity.