This painting depicts a canal scene where boats gather in the waterway, awaiting passage. Beyond the canal, a busy construction site rises with arched structures and shadowy figures, while a line of trees recedes into the distance. Cleemput's rendering transcends mere documentary observation of river life, offering instead a more evocative interpretation rooted in his experience of fleeting visual effects that shift from moment to moment, what the Impressionists termed the 'en plein air' approach. The work draws directly from early Claude Monet, employing a similar palette and brushwork to those Monet explored in his La Grenouillère series (Fig. 1). The spontaneous quality of Cleemput's technique here pays deliberate homage to Monet, whose works he would have encountered and admired during his time as a restorer at the Louvre. Cleemput rejects traditional methods of creating illusionistic three-dimensional space through linear perspective and conventional compositional devices. The receding line of trees, for instance, functions less as a traditional framing element and more as a bisecting force within the composition. The boats present a frontal orientation that resists leading the eye along the river's curve. Rather than establishing a central focal point, the horizon is deliberately pushed to the left, disrupting the expected trajectory of the canal and flattening the horizontal plane of the riverbank. Both the bridge and figures emphasise the picture's essential flatness, a quality amplified by Cleemput's handling of paint. Following Monet's example, he eschews conventional modelling of three-dimensional forms through light and shadow, opting instead for swift, sketchy notation. The boats are indicated with thick lines of undiluted paint rather than carefully delineated detail. Broad strokes block in figures, foliage, and bands of light reflected on the water — much of which, unusually, remains in shadow. Certain areas, including the trees, appear unfinished, with pale blue touches scattered throughout the green foliage, evoking atmospheric haziness and the transient quality of light.

(Fig. 1) Monet's impasto details, Claude Monet, Bathers at La Grenouillère, 1869, oil on canvas, © The National Gallery, London

Jean Van Cleemput (1881–1953) was a Brussels-born painter, draftsman, and graphic artist whose career traced a compelling arc through the major currents of early twentieth-century European art. Trained at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels under Constant Montald, he subsequently completed his studies in Paris, where he also worked as a restorer at the Louvre, an experience that sharpened his sensitivity to pictorial craft and tradition. His early work combined realistic draftsmanship with Impressionistic elegance, placing him in close stylistic dialogue with Frans Smeers. Over time, however, Van Cleemput moved toward a bolder Fauvist synthesis, his palette and form growing increasingly expressive — a development that brought his work into natural affinity with that of Jean Brusselmans, his brother-in-law. This evolution from observed realism to chromatic intensity gives his output a rare sense of sustained artistic inquiry. His painting The Haulers is held in the permanent collection of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims (Fig. 2)

(Fig. 2) Jean Van Cleemput, Les Haleurs, first half of the 20th century, oil on canvas, 73 × 97.7 cm, © Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims, inv. 946.6.59, photo: Corentin Le Goff