Return to the Dock in Stormy Weather

Original heliogravure

Plate dimensions (excluding margins): 10.5 x 13.5 cm
Overall dimensions (with margins): 16.5 x 20 cm
Signed lower right
Numbered lower left, edition of 75

In this twilight scene, where sea, sky, and land seem to merge beneath a veil of mist, the artist evokes far more than a simple maritime landscape: he portrays an ancestral struggle between humanity and the forces of nature.

The two men at the center, pushing a heavily loaded cart, symbolize the laborious and resilient condition of coastal workers. Their slow, synchronized movements reflect a silent solidarity born of shared effort and common hardship. They are not heroic in the classical sense, but their perseverance in the face of wind, sea, and cold evokes a quiet, stoic dignity.

The sea, captured in a heavy, threatening stillness, becomes a living entity—untamable and cyclical. It is both a source of wealth and a bringer of danger—a paradox intimately known to maritime communities. The beached or waiting boat may symbolize expectation, transition, or even powerlessness in the face of greater forces.

To the right, the wooden structure and the wind-whipped flag evoke the fragile outposts of civilization, erected in defiance of natural chaos. They stand as silent witnesses to a daily struggle for survival, as well as to a deep attachment to both land and sea.

Historically, the scene may recall the Nordic or Dutch fishing ports of the 19th or early 20th century—a time when maritime trade, seasonal fishing, and river transport shaped local life. The use of heliogravure, a refined image reproduction technique, reflects the artist’s desire to preserve this collective memory in a near-timeless form—somewhere between art and testimony.

Ultimately, the work reads as a quiet meditation on human endurance, the memory of place, and the precarious harmony between man and the elements. It pays tribute to humble yet essential lives, inscribed in the eternal rhythms of nature.