Country life beside the River Lys is the dominant theme in Emile Claus’ oeuvre. His landscapes are bathed in sunlight and are usually populated; here by a young woman and child, and a man in a boat. The figures in the foreground, are backlit, which blurs their silhouettes and renders them at one with the landscape. Claus used the wild vegetation, painted in a loose, Impressionistic style, as a repoussoir.
Colourful rural life on the banks of the River Leie, and a countryside bathed in sunlight: this is the theme adopted by the popular painter Emile Claus. Created around 1885, The River Leie at Astene is one of his early works. Claus had previously spent time in Spain and North Africa, where he was captivated by the southern light. A few years later, he would see works by the French Impressionists in Paris, including paintings by Monet. From that point onwards, Claus was influenced by their ideas about light playing the dominant role in painting.
This is also a work in which the atmosphere is determined by the light. We are in Astene, a village near Deinze, between Ghent and Kortrijk, on the banks of the River Leie. Claus had already spent several summers in the village but moved there permanently in 1886, a year after painting this work. He resided in an old country house called Villa Sunshine, which became a meeting place for artists.
Thistles grow on the banks of the Leie, and Claus uses them in the foreground of his composition. He paints them with loose brushstrokes. As is typical of his work, the landscape contains people, in this instance a young woman and a child. In the background, we see yet another figure: a man with a boat. The woman and child are lit from behind and perfectly integrated into the landscape.
Through the use of figures, Claus brings a ‘narrative’ aspect to his landscapes. This preference for story-telling and realism is a recognizable characteristic of many Belgian paintings. It is also true of Claus’ Impressionism. His own variant of this artistic movement, of which he became the most important protagonist, even has its own name: Luminism, after the Latin word for ‘light’, lumen.