Executed in 1896, Flottille d’Arnemuiden is a dazzling example of Théo van Rysselberghe at the height of his artistic powers, marking the transition from the meticulous Pointillist dots of Seurat and Signac to the broader, more fluid strokes that defined his signature landscapes. This shimmering scene depicts a fleet of fishing boats set against the luminous sea off Arnemuiden, a coastal town in the Netherlands, paying homage to the artist’s Flemish roots while showcasing his distinctive approach to modern painting. Held in the same family collection for over 40 years, this represents one of the finest works by the artist, with half of the only six paintings executed in this pivotal year held in prestigious museum collections including the National Gallery, London and the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (see figs. 1-3).
Fig. 2 Théo van Rysselberghe, Vue de mer et montagnes, 1896, National Museum, London
Fig. 3 Théo van Rysselberghe La Pointe de Saint-Pierre à Saint-Tropez, 1896, Musée national d'Histoire et d'Art, Luxembourg
Van Rysselberghe first encountered the work of Seurat and Signac in 1886 when he traveled to Paris in the company of his countryman, the Belgian poet and art critic Emile Verhaeren. Upon visiting the Eighth Impressionist Exhibition, where masterworks including Un dimanche après-midi à l'île de la Grande Jatte were displayed, it became clear to the artist that under Seurat and Signac, Divisionism had begun to dominate modern French painting (see fig. 4). Determined to introduce the radical new style into Belgian art, van Rysselberghe invited Signac to exhibit at the salon of his own Neo-Impressionist group Les XX (named for its twenty members) the following year (see fig. 5).
This new analytical and calculated style was welcomed by Van Rysselberghe as an antidote to the spontaneous character of traditional Impressionism: typified by the fragmented application of pigments, the Neo-Impressionists endorsed a much more studied approach to compositional arrangement than their predecessors. So taken as he was by this new technique, the Belgian painter became one of the few followers of Signac and Seurat that would fully incorporate their chromatic discoveries of applying paint in small dabs of complementary and contrasting color into his own mode of artistic expression.
Fig. 6 Théo van Rysselberghe, Paul Signac en yachtsman, 1896, Private Collection
Initially focusing on portraits rendered in glittering, jewel-like dots, van Rysselberghe gradually shifted toward landscapes, developing a more dynamic and expressive technique, in part informed by the freer brushwork seen in the works of Renoir and Monet shown at the Les XX exhibition. His interest in maritime subjects flourished during this period, often drawing inspiration from the Scheldt River near his native Antwerp as well as his broader travels. The ever-changing interplay of light and water along the riverbanks and coastal towns deeply influenced his artistic sensibilities, allowing him to develop a nuanced approach to depicting maritime scenes. Such resplendent paintings, including Flottille d’Arnemuiden, reflect not only his technical evolution—from early explorations of atmosphere and movement to increasingly sophisticated compositions—but also his engagement with themes of history, heritage, and the passage of time.
The town of Arnemuiden itself holds a profound historical resonance, having been the site of the first naval battle of the Hundred Years' War in 1338, a conflict that underscored the strategic importance of maritime power in medieval Europe. Later, during the Eighty Years' War, Arnemuiden became emblematic of Dutch resilience, surviving sieges and shifting tides of political struggle as the Netherlands fought for independence from Spanish rule. By choosing this location as a subject, the artist not only captured the timeless beauty of the sea but also evoked the depth of historical memory embedded in the landscape.
The sea and its inherent reflective and refractive qualities provided the perfect setting for van Rysselberghe to experiment with the rendering of light through paint, one of his principle artistic preoccupations. He once questioned another Belgian artist: “Tell me, is Anna Boch also haunted by light? It prevents me from sleeping and when I see a dark painting, I get seasick” (letter to Eugène Boch (1887), quoted in Exh. Cat., Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Théo van Rysselberghe, 2006, p. 36). This veritable obsession with light goes some way in explaining why the artist was so powerfully drawn to Neo-Impressionism.
Flottille d’Arnemuiden was held for decades in the collection of H.P. Bremmer, a pivotal figure in the reception and patronage of modern art in the Netherlands who was instrumental in shaping the appreciation of Neo-Impressionist and Symbolist art through his writings and collecting. His influence extended beyond acquisitions, fostering artistic discourse and championing key figures in Dutch and Belgian modernism, including van Rysselberghe himself: describing the present work, Bremmer declared:
"If one wishes to view such work from the own conception of this painter, then it has a fairly perfect character, and one can say, that he has achieved what he imagined to give. It is a totality of imagination...to achieve all this and to give it in that easy clarity of solution, the painter must have a convincing awareness of what the expressive forms are for him. One also gets the conviction of this, when one sees in what a firm way he knows how to determine the character of those sailing ships; how he knows how to accentuate the relation of those sails to the hulls. The general position of the boats on the water is to me particularly well accentuated...as someone who enjoys the joy of the sharp contrast of a fleet seen against the morning light, and knows how to reveal something great from it."
