The Girl with Masks - James Ensor Poster.

James Ensor

James Ensor was a Belgian painter active from the late 19th century through the 20th century. He is known for his works that frequently use eerie motifs such as skeletons and masks, and for his scathing satire of human hypocrisy and social corruption using vivid colors. His unique style of expression is highly regarded as a pioneer of Expressionism and Surrealism.

James Ensor Biography

• He was born to an English father and a Belgian mother in the Belgian port city of Ostend on April 13, 1860. His parents ran a souvenir shop, and the masks and seashells they sold there influenced his later work.

• In 1877 he entered the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, but rebelled against traditional education, dropped out after three years and returned to Ostend.

• In 1883, he became a founding member of the avant-garde artist group "Les Vents (Group of Twenty)," but later became isolated within the group, as his radical style led to his works being rejected for exhibition.

• In 1888 , he produced his masterpiece, "Christ's Entry into Brussels," which is considered a controversial work in art history, but it was rejected for exhibition at the "Les Vents" exhibition.

• After about 1900 , his style became more subdued, and he began to spend more time reproducing and arranging older works, as well as writing.

• In 1929 , his achievements were recognized when he was awarded the title of Baron by King Albert I.

• He died on November 19, 1949, at the age of 89, in Ostend, where he had spent most of his life.

Representative works

• Woman Eating Oysters (1882)

• "Conspiracy" (1890)

• "Christ's Entry into Brussels" (1888)

• Self-Portrait in a Mask (1899)

• Strange Masks (1892)

Ensor's early works consisted mainly of dark, realistic interiors and portraits. However, from the mid-1880s onwards, his style changed dramatically, and he began to use bright, intense colours and fill his paintings with fantastical motifs such as skeletons, masks and ghosts. The "mask" in his works functions as an important device for exposing social hypocrisy and the emptiness within people's inner selves.

In his masterpiece, "Christ's Entry into Brussels," he depicted Christ amidst a raucous modern-day carnival crowd, transforming a religious theme into a scathing social satire. His visionary, grotesque, and often self-reflecting expressions were largely unappreciated by the conservative art world of the time, but they had a major influence on German Expressionist painters such as Emil Nolde and Paul Klee, and became one of the important sources of 20th century art.