The Oyster Eater

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. by Jan Steen; when oysters were linked, by association, to love, sex, and fertility.