# The Oyster Eater [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ENSOR, James]() - Date: 1851-1900 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 207 x 151 cm ## Commentary This painting can be considered as a festive homage to the good life. At the end of the 19th century, this work was viewed as immoral. A young city woman sitting comfortably to enjoy the good things in life \(oysters and fine wines\) was found to be inappropriate. Originally this work was also rejected at a number of exhibitions, more progressive circles \(e.g. Les XX\), however, saw the value of the painting. The subject was also treated in seventeenth-century Flemish painting, e.g. <a onclick="return OpenOther\('/html/s/steen/page2/oyster.html'\)" href="/html/s/steen/page2/oyster.html">by Jan Steen;</a> when oysters were linked, by association, to love, sex, and fertility. ## Related artworks - [Astonishment of the Mask Wouse]() - [Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889]() - [Old Lady with Masks]() - [The Dejected Lady]() - [The Intrigue]() - [Tribulations of St Anthony]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()