Henri-Victor Wolvens (1896-1977) was a Flemish painter who trained at various Belgian academies. Married, he settled in Bruges where the light and the sea inspired him. He was further inspired by stations, trains, quiet neighborhoods and walkers. He also regularly painted interiors. Wolvens painted colorfully, with many layers of paint laid on top of each other, paying particular attention to light and atmosphere. Even though he himself was averse to 'schools', the critics placed him among the so-called 'Animists': a Flemish group that worked separately and preferred the introspective to expressionism. Colleague art dealer Van der Pant has a work for sale entitled 'Restaurant in Nogent' that inspired us to create a Belgian dish of mussels in brown beer and garlic.

Mussels in brown beer

Required: 2 kg mussels, bag of farmers soup vegetables, 1 red onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 bottles of brown beer, salt and pepper. Baguette and sauces to go with it.

Rinse the mussels and remove the broken and open mussels.
In the meantime, cut the red onion into large pieces and the garlic into slices and fry in a heated mussel pan with some olive oil. Add the soup vegetables and fry the mixture for about 3 minutes. Now add the mussels to the pan and pour the beer over them. Now cook the mussels for 5-8 minutes with the lid on the pan. Stir occasionally so that all the mussels can cook. Serve the mussels with baguette and various sauces, or go for moules frites.