Charles Mertens (1865–1919)
Parc à huîtres en Zélande (Oyster Park in Zeeland), n.d.

Oil on crdboard
McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College, Gift of Charles Hack and the Hearn Family Trust

Jeffery Howe
Professor Emeritus, Art History

Trained in the Royal Academy in Antwerp, Mertens became an important representative of the Antwerp School around the turn of the century as a member of several artist groups: Als Ik Kan (The Best I Can), Cercle des XIII, and Kunst van Heden (Art of Today).

Here, in an overall gray-blue atmospheric tone, Mertens focuses on the cultivation of oysters in artificial beds along the coast of Zeeland. Leasing of cultivating beds from the government began in 1870 to counteract a collapse of natural oyster stocks. This shift from wild-caught bivalves to the farmed variety flourished, but put many traditional fishermen out of work.