"The world is blue at its edges and in its depths... the blue at the horizon, the blue of land that seems to be dissolving into the sky, is a deeper, dreamier, melancholy blue, the blue at the farthest reaches of the places where you see for miles, the blue of distance."
—Rebecca Solnit
Under the blue-tinged veil of night, two vessels submerge in Laurens Legier’s surreal maritime scene, sinking ship, 2020. The askew ships are in near mirror symmetry, set against a vast blue sea in the dreamy shadow of distant, atmospherically hued mountains. Illuminated by the eerie glow of a crescent moon, the scene insinuates a moment of metamorphosis, as if the vessels are plunging into depths unknown. Windless sails undulate with exaggerated creases while ripples strike the glassy surface of the water. The present work exemplifies the Belgian artist’s use of nautical motifs and repeated forms in works created from memory rather than observation. The voluminous subjects recall the rounded shapes and gradients of digital renderings while referencing Belgian and Flemish painters of the 18th and 19th centuries. Influenced by Romantic period seascapes, sinking ship balances the serene and the ominous in a mysterious shipwreck scene.
