singular mask 1892 James Ensor 1860-1949 Belgian Belgium
James Ensor (April 13, 1860 - November 19, 1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for almost his entire life. He was associated with the artistic group Les XX. Ensor's father was of English extraction, and his mother was Flemish. A poor student, he left school at the age of fifteen to begin artistic training with two local painters. From 1877 to 1880, he studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where his classmates included Fernand Khnopff. He first exhibited his work in 1881. While Ensor's early works, such as Russian Music (1881) and The Drunkards (1883), depict realistic scenes in a somber style, his palette subsequently brightened and he favored increasingly bizarre subject matter. Such paintings as The Scandalized Masks (1883) and Skeletons Fighting over a Hanged Man (1891) feature figures in grotesque masks inspired by the ones sold in his mother's gift shop for Ostend's annual Carnival. From 1880 until 1917, he had his studio in the attic of his parents' house. The Rower, Oil Painting, 1883, Location: KMSKA, AntwerpDuring the late 1800s much of his work was rejected as scandalous, particularly his painting Entry of Christ into Brussels (1888), but his paintings continued to be exhibited, and he gradually won acceptance and acclaim. By 1920 he was the subject of major exhibitions; in 1929 the Belgian composer Flor Alpaerts completed the "James Ensor Suite", and Ensor was named a Baron by King Albert. Even in the first decade of the 20th century, however, his production of new works was diminishing, and critics have generally seen Ensor's last fifty years as a long period of decline.
Size: 3808px × 4961px
Location: Museum
Photo credit: © Peter Horree / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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