1. James Ensor, The Bad Physicians, 1892, Oil on canvas, 50 x 61 cm. Université Libre de Bruxelles, inv. 214 (on long-term loan to RFMAB) © J.Geneyns - Art Photography
Ensor and Brussels, an endless love story
While the capital of Belgium always had a important place in Ensor’s life and work at the beginning of the painter’s artistic career, an exhibition rarely shed light on his early works.
While he settled there in 1877 as an academy student who later became an artist, the exhibition introduces us to the young painter and the city where he will develop his early style before becoming one of the pivotal figures of the Belgian avant-garde.
2. James Ensor, The vexed masks, 1883, Oil on canvas, 135 x 112 cm. RMFAB, Inv.4190 © J.Geleyns - Art Photography
Born in Ostend
James Ensor was born in 1860, in Ostend, a coastal town that will grow into a fashionable seaside resort. James Ensor is the first child of Marie-Catherine Haegheman and James Frederic Ensor. The British Ensor family settled in Belgium in 1824.
At the age of 17, he meets his future wife during a summer in Ostend. His wife is coming from the Haegheman family which runs several souvenir shops on the Belgian coast, where you can buy trinkets like lace, chinoiseries, shells, toys, jewellery, souvenirs and masks. Thus, the young artist grew up in a cabinet of curiosities in which busy summer months alternate with endless winters.
The early days
3. James Ensor, Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889, 1888, Oil on canvas, 252,6 x 431 cm. The J.Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 87.PA.96
Ensor receives a painting box as a gift from his father on his 15th birthday. He then apprentices with some local artists and enrols at the Academy of Ostend at 16. With these first experiences in drawing and painting, Ensor enrol at the prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels.
In October 1877, he rents a room at Rue Saint-Jean 12, near the current Mont des Arts, Brussels, thus englobing the young artist into a vibrant and cultural life. For Ensor, Brussels is not only an artistic centre but also the centre of power. The city is the symbol of a young kingdom and the place where the voice of the people resonates powerfully.
In Brussels, Ensor becomes acquainted with rising socialism and the mass protests that shake up conservative Belgium. The citizens movement becomes a recurring theme in his work. This fascination culminated in his metre-sized, iconic canvas Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1898, which has been in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles since 1987.
4. James Ensor, Torso of Laocoön, 1878, Conté pencil and charcoal on paper, 820 x 580 mm, KBR, Inv. F-2023-3 © KBR 
Ensor spends three years at the Academy. His courses there include “Drawing after antique head”, “Painting after nature” and “Historical composition”. Like many of his fellow, he experiences the course as old-fashioned and rigid. For instance, he has to draw and paint plaster casts of statues from classical antiquity.
At the end of the academic year, concours are held. He gets one of the highest grades from his professors in the drawing competitions, but they are less enthusiastic about his paintings: he usually finishes last.
Through his fellow in Brussels, Ensor is introduced to realism, an international art movement that puts ordinary people at the center of the works. It's the total opposite of what he has learned at the Academy, which he quit.
In 1892, it was the first public institution to buy a considerable quantity of his etchings. The young Ensor was delighted with his first museum sale: from now on, his own work will be kept together with that of his great example Rembrandt in the same cabinet
Beside his works as a painter, Ensor sees etchings as a means of making his art more widespread and affordable. Ensor is a great admirer of Rembrandt’s etchings. Together with the Rousseau family, he visits KBR’s Print Room to study the old master’s work. The same Print Room appreciated Ensor’s work early on.
After his academic days, Ensor leans on his friend Théo Hannon, a key figure of the Belgian avant-garde. He introduces Ensor to his sister, Mariette, and her husband Ernest Rousseau. Ensor is a familiar guest at their beautiful townhouse in Ixelles. He comes into contact with new ideas there, and they also buy his work.
In 1883, the magazine L’Art moderne announced the creation of Les XX. This group brings together 20 Belgian artists rebelling against the artistic taste. Ensor is a founding member, the Brussels lawyer and art pope Octave Maus is designated secretary. Their goal was to organise an annual salon featuring radical work by group members and sympathisers.
They do so according to their own rules of the game, independent of juries and official institutions. From 1887, the salons took place in the old Palace of Charles of Lorraine. Ensor and his fellow artists make Brussels the hotspot of the avant-garde in Belgium.
During the salon, Ensor shows his most controversial works there for the first time. In 1884, his first mask scene caused a stir. The more grotesque and screaming, the more criticism he garnered. He was accused of shocking respectable citizens. During the last years of Les XX, he also mocked King Leopold II’s policies and the prevailing political situation. Les XX was dissolved in 1893, 10 years after its founding.
The curators of the exhibition are Daan van Heesch and Vanessa Braekeveld.
Informations about the exhibition
Place: KBR - Brussels
Date: 22.2.2024 - 2.6.2024
Curators: Daan Van Heesch and Vanessa Braekeveld
Ticket: Available at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the KBR - Brussels
KBR
Mont des Arts 28
1000 Brussels
Phone: +32 2 519 53 11
Mail: info@kbr.be