James Ensor

{{Infobox artist

| name = James Ensor

| image = Ensor voor zijn schildersezel, James Ensor, 1890, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, 2809.001.jpeg

| imagesize =

| caption = Self-Portrait of James Ensor at his Easel, 1890

| birth_name = James Sidney Ensor

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1860|4|13}}

| birth_place = Ostend, Belgium

| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1949|11|19|1860|4|13}}

| death_place = Ostend, Belgium

| nationality = Belgian

| field = Painting, graphic arts

| training = Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels (Belgium)

| movement =

| works =

| patrons =

| influenced =

| awards =

}}

File:Ensor by Lilar.jpg, 1940s, photograph by Albert Lilar|Ensor in front of "Entry of Christ into Brussels" in his house in Ostend, 1940s, photo by Albert Lilar]]

James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949){{Cite web |url=https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/26402 |title=James Ensor |website=Netherlands Institute of Art |language=nl |access-date=17 November 2018 }} was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for most of his life. He was associated with the artistic group Les XX.

Biography

Ensor's father, James Frederic Ensor, born in Brussels to English parents,{{harvnb|Farmer|1976|p=7}} was a cultivated man who studied engineering in England and Germany.{{cite web|url=http://www.jamesensor.org/info |title=Info – Ensor Advisory Committee |publisher=Jamesensor.org |access-date=2 June 2014}} Ensor's mother, Maria Catherina Haegheman, was Belgian. Ensor spent his childhood in a souvenir shop run by his parents. He was fascinated by the carnival masks sold at the shop and these masks would become a source of inspiration in his works.{{Cite web |date=2025-04-22 |title=James Ensor, the modern Flemish master |url=https://www.visitflanders.com/en/stories/james-ensor-modern-flemish-master |access-date=2025-05-16 |website=VISITFLANDERS |language=en}} Ensor himself lacked interest in academic study and left school at the age of fifteen to begin his artistic training with two local painters. From 1877 to 1880, he attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where one of his fellow students was Fernand Khnopff.{{harvnb|Becks-Malorny|2000|pp=12–16}} Ensor first exhibited his work in 1881. From 1880 until 1917, he had his studio in the attic of his parents' house. His travels were very few: three brief trips to France and two to the Netherlands in the 1880s,{{harvnb|Ensor|Pfeiffer|Hollein|Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt|2005|p=21}} and a four-day trip to London in 1892.{{harvnb|Becks-Malorny|2000|p=94}}

During the late 19th century, much of Ensor's work was rejected as scandalous, particularly his painting Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889 (1888–89). The Belgian art critic Octave Maus famously summed up the response from contemporaneous art critics to Ensor's innovative (and often scathingly political) work: "Ensor is the leader of a clan. Ensor is the limelight. Ensor sums up and concentrates certain principles which are considered to be anarchistic. In short, Ensor is a dangerous person who has great changes. ... He is consequently marked for blows. It is at him that all the harquebuses are aimed. It is on his head that are dumped the most aromatic containers of the so-called serious critics."{{Citation needed|date=June 2018}} Some of Ensor's contemporaneous work reveals his defiant response to this criticism. For example, the 1887 etching "Le Pisseur" depicts the artist urinating on a graffitied wall declaring (in the voice of an art critic) "Ensor est un fou" or "Ensor is a Madman."{{harvnb|Becks-Malorny|2000|p=10}}

Ensor's paintings continued to be exhibited and he gradually won acceptance and acclaim. In 1895 his painting The Lamp Boy (1880) was acquired by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, and he had his first solo exhibition in Brussels.{{harvnb|Becks-Malorny|2000|p=95}} By 1920 he was the subject of major exhibitions; in 1929 he was named a Baron by King Albert, and was the subject of the Belgian composer Flor Alpaerts's James Ensor Suite; and in 1933 he was awarded the band of the Légion d'honneur. Alfred H. Barr Jr., the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, after considering Ensor's 1887 painting Tribulations of Saint Anthony (now in MoMA's collection), declared Ensor the boldest painter working at that time.{{harvnb|Swinbourne|2009}}{{Pages needed|date=August 2019}}

Even in the first decade of the 20th century, however, Ensor's production of new works was diminishing, and he increasingly concentrated on music—although he had no musical training, he was a gifted improviser on the harmonium, and spent much time performing for visitors.{{harvnb|Becks-Malorny|2000|p=91}}

Against the advice of friends, he remained in Ostend during World War II despite the risk of bombardment. In his old age, he was an honored figure among Belgians, and his daily walk made him a familiar sight in Ostend.{{harvnb|Becks-Malorny|2000|pp=91–92}} He died there following a short illness, on 19 November 1949 at the age of 89.

Art

File:Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889.jpg (1888), oil on canvas, 256.8 × 378.4 cm, the Getty Museum]]

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. Subjects such as carnivals, masks, puppetry, skeletons and fantastic allegories are dominant in Ensor's mature work. Ensor dressed skeletons up in his studio and arranged them in colorful, enigmatic tableaux on the canvas, and used masks as a theatrical aspect in his still lifes. Attracted by masks' plastic forms, bright colors and potential for psychological impact, he created a format in which he could paint with complete freedom.{{harvnb|van Gindertael|1975|p=114}}

The four years between 1888 and 1892 mark a turning point in Ensor's work. He turned to religious themes, often the torments of Christ.{{harvnb|Arnason|Kalb|2004|p=95}} Ensor interpreted religious themes as a personal disgust for the inhumanity of the world. In 1888 alone, he produced forty-five etchings as well as his most ambitious painting, the immense Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889.{{harvnb|Farmer|1976|p=32}} Also known as Entry of Christ into Brussels, it is considered "a forerunner of twentieth-century Expressionism." In this composition, which elaborates a theme treated by Ensor in his drawing Les Aureoles du Christ of 1885, a vast carnival mob in grotesque masks advances toward the viewer. Identifiable within the crowd are Belgian politicians, historical figures and members of Ensor's family.{{harvnb|Becks-Malorny|2000|p=48}} Nearly lost amid the teeming throng is Christ on his donkey; although Ensor was an atheist, he identified with Christ as a victim of mockery.{{harvnb|Becks-Malorny|2000|p=43}} The piece, which measures {{frac|99|1|2}} by {{frac|169|1|2}} inches, was rejected by Les XX and was not publicly displayed until 1929.J. Paul Getty Museum. [http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=932 Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120206204918/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=932 |date=6 February 2012 }} Retrieved 18 September 2008. After its controversial export in the 1960s, the painting is now at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

As Ensor achieved belated recognition in the final years of the 19th century, his style softened and he painted less in the 20th century. Historians have generally seen Ensor's last forty or fifty years as a long period of decline, although noting a few original "superb and poignant" compositions from his later period. One author identified significant works of Ensor's late period such as The Artist's Mother in Death (1915), a subdued painting of his mother's deathbed with a still life of prominent medicine bottles in the foreground, and The Vile Vivisectors (1925), a vehement attack on those responsible for the use of animals in medical experimentation. Another stated "He would still paint pictures magnificently vigorous and bold, but they would be exceptions rather than the rule" noting works such as Our Two Portraits (1905), The Deliverance of Andromeda (1925), Port of Ostend (1933) and Ensor at the Harmonium (1933).Janssens, 1978, p. 89-90 The aggressive sarcasm that had characterized his work since the mid-1880s was less evident in his few new compositions, and much of his output consisted of mild repetitions of earlier works.{{harvnb|Becks-Malorny|2000|pp=87–88}} Several still life paintings, void of social, political, or introspective content, stand out among his later works. Ensor turned increasingly to music in his later years, playing the harmonium and even composing a ballet-pantomime in one act, The Scale of Love (1907), complete with an original libretto, sets and costumes. He is known to have stated in later years that he had followed the wrong path in life, feeling that he should have devoted himself to music.Farmer, 1976, p. 31"Janssens, 1978, p. 91"

Gallery

Early work (1879–1884)

File:James Ensor (1879) - De vrouw met de wipneus 001.jpg|Woman with Turned-up Nose (1879), oil on canvas mounted on wood, 54 × 45 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

File:James Ensor (1880) - De rog 001.jpg|The Skate (c. 1880), oil on canvas, 79 × 98.3 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

File:James Ensor (1880) - Stilleven met chinoiserieën 001.jpg|Still Life with Chinoiseries (1880), oil on canvas, 100 × 78 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

File:Namiddag in Oostende, James Ensor, 1881, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, 1852.001.jpeg|Afternoon in Ostend (1881), oil on canvas, 108 × 133 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

File:James Ensor (1882) - De oestereetster 001.jpg|The Oyster Eater (1882), oil on canvas, 207 × 150 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

File:James Ensor, Meadow Flowers (1883) oil on canvas, 113 x 97.5 cm., Minneapolis Institute of Arts.jpg|Meadow Flowers (1883), oil on canvas, 113 × 97.5 cm, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

File:James Ensor The Rower.jpg|The Rower (1883), Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

File:James Ensor, Scandalized Mask (1883) oil on canvas, 135 x 112 cm., Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels.jpg|Scandalized Mask (1883), oil on canvas, 135 × 112 cm, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels

File:James Ensor (1884) - De daken van Oostende 001.jpg|The Rooftops of Ostend (1884), Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

Mature work (1885–1899)

File:James Ensor (1887) - Uitdrijving Adam en Eva uit het aards paradijs 001.jpg|Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise (1887), oil on canvas, 205 × 245 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

File:Tribulations of Saint Anthony 1887.jpg|Tribulations of Saint Anthony (1887), oil on canvas, 117.8 × 167.6 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York

File:Astonishment of the Mask Wouse, 1889.jpg|Astonishment of the Mask Wouse (1889), oil on canvas, 131,5 × 109 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

File:James Ensor, Skeletons Warming Themselves, 1889.jpg|Skeletons Warming Themselves (1889), oil on canvas, 74.8 × 60 cm, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth

File:Muenchen Neue Pinakothek Ensor Still Life.jpg|Attributes of the Studio (1889), oil on canvas, 83 × 113.5 cm, Alte Pinakothek, Munich

File:L'Intrigue (James Ensor, 1890).jpg|The Intrigue (1890), oil on canvas, 90 × 150 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

File:The Assassination by James Ensor, 1890.JPG|The Assassination (1890), oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, Columbus Museum of Art (inspired by the death of Antoine B. Fualdès)

File:James Ensor, Les bons juges, 1891.jpg|The Good Judges (1891), oil on panel, 38 × 46 cm, private collection

File:Ensor, De man van smarten, 1891.jpg|The Man of Sorrows (1891), Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

File:1891 James Ensor Squelette se disputant un pendu.jpg|Skeletons Fighting over a Hanged Man (1891), Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

File:James Ensor La Raie.jpg|Still Life with Ray (1892) oil on canvas, 80 × 100 cm, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels

File:James Ensor, Les cuisiniers dangereux, 1896.jpg|The Dangerous Cooks (1896), oil on panel, 38 × 46 cm, private collection

File:James Ensor (1896) - Bloemen en groenten 001.jpg|Flowers and Vegetables (1896), oil on canvas, 79 × 98 cm; collection Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp

File:James Ensor, Le grand juge, 1898.jpg|The Great Judge (1898), oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, private collection

File:James Ensor, Self Portrait with Masks (1899) oil on canvas, 117 x 82 cm., Menard Art Museum, Komaki, Japan.jpg|Self-Portrait with Masks (1899), oil on canvas, 117 × 82 cm, Menard Art Museum, Komaki

Later work (1900–1949)

File:James Ensor - Still Life with Chinoiseries - INV1959.jpg|Still Life with Chinoiseries (c. 1906), oil on canvas, 85 × 105 cm, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp

File:Ma mère morte, 1915, oil on canvas, 75 x 60 cm, Kunstmuseum aan Zee, Ostend.jpg|My Dead Mother (1915), oil on canvas, 75 × 60 cm, Mu.ZEE, Ostend

File:James Ensor - Phantastisches Stillleben - 3914 - Österreichische Galerie Belvedere.jpg|Fantastic Still Life (c. 1917), oil on canvas, 16 × 21.5 cm, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna

File:1921 Ensor Stilleben mit Kohl anagoria.JPG|Still Life with a Cabbage (1921), oil on canvas, dimensions unknown, Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, Netherlands

File:James Ensor Mädchen-mit-Masken Kommunion.jpg|Girl with Masks or Eucharist (1921), oil on canvas, 57.2 × 52.5 cm, Städelsches Art Institute and Urban Gallery, Frankfurt

File:James Ensor, Finding of Moses (1924) oil on canvas, 119 x 128 cm.jpg|Finding of Moses (1924), oil on canvas, 119 × 128 cm, private collection

File:James Ensor, The Vile Vivisectors (1925), oil on canvas.jpg|The Vile Vivisectors (1925), oil on canvas, dimensions and collection unknown

File:James Ensor, Ensor at the Harmonium, 1933.jpg|Ensor at the Harmonium (1933), oil on canvas, dimensions and collection unknown

=Printmaking=

Ensor was a prolific and accomplished printmaker. He created 133 etchings and drypoints over the course of his career, with 86 of them made between 1886 and 1891 during the height of Ensor's most creative period.{{harvnb|Swinbourne|2009|p=20}} Ensor himself recognized that the prints were a key part of his artistic legacy, stating in a letter to Albert Croquez in 1934: "Yes, my intention is to go on working for a long time yet so that generations to come may hear me. My intention is to survive, and I think of the solid copper plate, the unalterable ink, easy reproduction, faithful prints, and I adopt etching as a means of expression."{{harvnb|Taevernier|1999|page=8}}

In 1889, Ensor created two highly political etchings. The first, titled Doctrinal Nourishment [or Alimentation Doctrinaire], depicts key figures in Belgium—a bishop, the king, etc.—defecating on the masses of Belgium. The second, titled Belgium in the XIXth Century or King Dindon, depicts King Leopold II watching as military figures violently quell a protest. These prints are very rare today because Ensor attempted to remove them from circulation after being named Baron and many others were lost during the war.{{harvnb|Taevernier|1999|pages=199–209}}

File:James Ensor, The Cathedral (1886) etching, 25 x 19 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.jpg|The Cathedral (1886) etching, 25 × 19 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent

File:James Ensor, Ernest Rousseau (1887) drypoint, 24 x 18.1 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.jpg|Ernest Rousseau (1887) drypoint, 24 × 18.1 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent

File:James Ensor, Houses on the Boulevard Anspach in Brussels (1888) drypoint, 13.9 x 9.2 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.jpg|Boulevard Anspach (1888) drypoint, 13.9 × 9.2 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent

File:James Ensor, Country Fair Near a Windmill (1889) etching, 13.8 x 17.8 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.jpg|Country Fair Near a Windmill (1889) etching, 13.8 × 17.8 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent

File:James Ensor, My Portrait in the Year 1960 (1888) etching, 6.9 x 12., Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.jpg|My Portrait in the Year 1960 (1888) etching, 6.9 × 12 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent

File:James Ensor, Peculiar Insects (1888) drypoint, 11.9 x 15.9 cm., Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.jpg|Peculiar Insects (1888) drypoint, 11.9 × 15.9 cm, Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels

File:James Ensor, Alimentation Doctrinaire (1889) etching, 17.8 x 24.8 cm., Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp.jpg|Alimentation Doctrinaire (1889) etching, 17.8 × 24.8 cm, Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp

File:James Ensor, King Pest (1895) etching, 10 x 12 cm., Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.jpg|King Pest (1895) etching, 10 × 12 cm, Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels

File:James Ensor, Demons Taunting Me (1895) etching, 11.8 x 15.8 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.jpg|Demons Taunting Me (1895) etching, 11.8 × 15.8 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent

File:James Ensor, Christ Tormented by Demons (1895) etching and drypoint, 17.9 x 24.2 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.jpg|Christ Tormented by Demons (1895) etching and drypoint, 17.9 × 24.2 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent

File:James Ensor, The Devils Dzitts and Hihanox Lead Christ into Hell (1895) 13.9 x 17.8 cm., etching and drypoint, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.jpg|The Devils Dzitts and Hihanox Lead Christ into Hell (1895) 13.9 × 17.8 cm, etching and drypoint, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent

File:James Ensor, Death Pursuing Humanity (1896) etching, 24.1 x 18.2 cm., Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.jpg|Death Pursuing Humanity (1896) etching, 24.1 × 18.2 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent

File:James Ensor, Plague Below, Plague Above, Plague Everywhere (1904) etching, 19.7 x 29.8 cm., Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp.jpg|Plague Below, Plague Above, Plague Everywhere (1904) etching, 19.7 × 29.8 cm, Plantin-Moretus Museum, Antwerp

The Seven Deadly Sins

File:James Ensor, Death Dominating the Deadly Sins (1904) etching, 9 x 14 cm., Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.jpg|Death Dominating the Deadly Sins (1904) etching, 9 × 14 cm, Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels

File:James Ensor, Seven Deadly Sins, Anger (1904) etching, 9.8 x 15 cm., Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.jpg|Anger (1904) etching, 9.8 × 15 cm, Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels

File:James Ensor, Seven Deadly Sins, Avarice (1904) etching, 9.8 x 15 cm., Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.jpg|Avarice (1904) etching, 9.8 × 15 cm, Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels

File:James Ensor, Seven Deadly Sins, Envy (1904) etching, 9.8 x 15 cm., Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.jpg|Envy (1904) etching, 9.8 × 15 cm, Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels

File:James Ensor, Seven Deadly Sins, Gluttony (1904) etching, 9.8 x 15 cm., Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.jpg|Gluttony (1904) etching, 9.8 × 15 cm, Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels

File:James Ensor, Seven Deadly Sins, Lust (1888) etching, 9.8 x 13.7 cm., Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.jpg|Lust (1888) etching, 9.8 × 13.7 cm, Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels

File:James Ensor, Seven Deadly Sins, Pride (1904) etching, 9.8 x 15 cm., Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.jpg|Pride (1904) etching, 9.8 × 15 cm, Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels

File:James Ensor, Seven Deadly Sins, Sloth (1902) etching, 10 x 14 cm., Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels.jpg|Sloth (1902) etching, 10 × 14 cm, Royal Library of Belgium, Brussels

Honour

1919: Commander of the Order of LeopoldRoyal Decree of H.M. King Albert I on 14 November 1919.

Influence and legacy

File:Death mask of Ensor.JPG of James Ensor]]

File:Bal du rat mort.JPG (Dead Rat Ball) is held in Ostend.]]

Ensor is considered to be an innovator in 19th-century art. Although he stood apart from other artists of his time, he significantly influenced such 20th-century artists as Paul Klee, Emil Nolde, George Grosz, Alfred Kubin, Wols, Felix Nussbaum{{harvnb|Becks-Malorny|2000|p=92}} and other expressionist and surrealist painters of the 20th century. As Los Angeles County Museum of Art CEO and Wallis Annenberg director Michael Govan has explained: "James Ensor's signature style—his radical distortion of form, his ambiguous space, his riotous color, his muddled surfaces, and his proclivity for the bizarre—both anticipated and influenced modernist movements from symbolism and German expressionism to dada and surrealism."{{Cite book|title=Doctrinal Nourishment: Art and Anarchism in the Time of James Ensor|last=Papanikolas|first=Theresa|publisher=Los Angeles County Museum of Art|year=2008|isbn=978-0-87587-199-8|location=Los Angeles, California|pages=7}}

Ensor's works are in many public collections, notably the Modern Art Museum of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, and Mu.ZEE in Ostend. Major works by Ensor are also in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne. A collection of his letters is held in the Contemporary Art Archives of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels.{{Cite web|url=http://www.fine-arts-museum.be/site/en/frames/F_archcont.html |title=La Documentation |date=24 December 2004 |website=The Contemporary Art Archives |access-date=11 March 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041224221239/http://www.fine-arts-museum.be/site/en/frames/F_archcont.html |archive-date=24 December 2004 }} The Ensor collections of the Flemish fine art museums can all be seen at the James Ensor Online Museum.{{cite web|url=http://www.jamesensor.eu|title=jamesensor.eu|access-date=23 August 2015}}

Ensor has been paid homage by contemporary paintersMohammed, Nisha. [http://www.rutherford.org/Oldspeak/Articles/Art/oldspeak-pelletier.asp American fundamentalists: Christ's entry into Washington in 2008. An interview with Joel Pelletier.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071222124257/http://www.rutherford.org/Oldspeak/Articles/Art/oldspeak-pelletier.asp |date=22 December 2007 }} Rutherford Institute, 5 July 2006. Retrieved 18 September 2008. and artists in other media. The Belgian artist Pierre Alechinsky (b. 1927) and noted member of COBRA, painted The Tomb of Ensor (1961) in homage to Ensor, which is now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.{{cite web|url=https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/47383/the-tomb-of-ensor?ctx=cc9531bbc2781929245459d2ea70e87fc1735def&idx=0|title= Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: Pierre Alechinsky, The Tomb of Ensor|publisher=Museum of Fine Arts, Houston|access-date=2 December 2020}} He is the subject of a song, "Meet James Ensor",[http://tmbw.net/wiki/Meet_James_Ensor "Meet James Ensor" on This Might Be A Wiki] recorded in 1994 by the alternative rock duo They Might Be Giants. The 1996 Belgian movie Camping Cosmos was inspired by drawings of James Ensor, in particular Carnaval sur la plage (1887), La mort poursuivant le troupeau des humains (1896) and Le bal fantastique (1889). The film's director, Jan Bucquoy, is also the creator of a comic {{ill|Le Bal du Rat mort|fr|Le Bal du rat mort|italic=yes}} inspired by Ensor.Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws, 5 October 1981, Marc Wilmet: "Jan Bucquoy laureaat van het stripverhaal".

An exhibition of approximately 120 works by James Ensor was shown at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City in 2009, and then at the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, October 2009 to February 2010. The Getty mounted a similar exhibition June to September 2014.{{cite web|url=http://www.scpr.org/programs/offramp/2014/06/16/37929/james-ensor-s-massive-menace-minute-malign-fantasi/|title=James Ensor's massive menace, minute malign fantasies on display at the Getty | Off-Ramp | 89.3 KPCC|date=16 June 2014|publisher=scpr.org|access-date=26 September 2014}} The Art Institute of Chicago exhibited Ensor's 1887 masterpiece The Temptation of St. Anthony from November 2014 through January 2015, along with other important paintings and etchings.{{Cite web|url=http://www.artic.edu/exhibition/temptation-demons-james-ensor|title=Temptation: The Demons of James Ensor|website=The Art Institute of Chicago|date=23 November 2014 |language=en|access-date=22 June 2017}} From October 2016 through January 2017, the Royal Academy of Arts in London hosted a major exhibition of Ensor's paintings and etchings, curated by the Belgian artist Luc Tuymans.{{Cite web|url=https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/james-ensor-luc-tuymans|title=Intrigue: James Ensor by Luc Tuymans {{!}} Exhibition|website=Royal Academy of Arts|access-date=9 June 2017}} The black artist Kara Walker painted a controversial work, "Christ's Entry into Journalism", inspired by Ensor in 2017.{{Cite web|url= https://www.riotmaterial.com/redemption-of-art-through-disfigurement-slaughter/|title=The Redemption of Art Through Disfigurement and Slaughter|date=2 November 2017|first= Arabella Hutter|last=von Arx }}

The yearly philanthropic "Bal du Rat mort" (Dead Rat Ball) in Ostend continues a tradition begun by Ensor and his friends in 1898.

In the movie Halloween (1978), a poster of one of Ensor's self-portraits appears on the wall of a room in Laurie Strode's (Jamie Lee Curtis) home.

The 2024 game "Please, Touch The Artwork 2" is a hidden object game where almost all of the artwork and even some of the game's music are works by Ensor.[https://store.steampowered.com/app/2600140/Please_Touch_The_Artwork_2/ "Please, Touch The Artwork 2" on Steam]

References

;Citations

;Works cited

{{cite book|last1=Arnason|first1=H. Harvard|last2=Kalb|first2=Peter|date=2004|title=History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Photography|location=New Jersey|publisher=Prentice Hall, Inc.|edition=5th|isbn=978-0-13-184069-0}}
{{cite book|last=Becks-Malorny|first=Ulrike|date=2000|title=James Ensor|location=Cologne|publisher=Taschen|isbn=3-8228-5858-7|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/jamesensor1860190000beck}}
{{cite book|last1=Ensor|first1=James|last2=Pfeiffer|first2=Ingrid|last3=Hollein|first3=Max|author4=Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt|author-link4=Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt|date=2005|title=James Ensor|location=Ostfildern-Ruit|publisher=Hatje Cantz|isbn=978-3-7757-1702-1}}
{{cite book|last=Farmer|first=John David|date=1976|title=Ensor|location=New York|publisher=George Braziller|oclc=462494050}}
{{Cite book|last=Swinbourne|first=Anne|title=James Ensor|publisher=The Museum of Modern Art|year=2009|isbn=978-0-87070-752-0|location=New York}}
{{Cite book|title=James Ensor|last=Taevernier|first=Auguste|publisher=Pandora/Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon|year=1999|isbn=90-5325-135-9|location=Belgium}}
{{cite book|last=van Gindertael|first=Roger|date=1975|title=Ensor|location=Boston|publisher=New York Graphic Society Ltd.|isbn=978-0-8212-0649-2}}
{{cite book|last=Janssens|first=Jacques|date=1978|title=James Ensor|location=New York|publisher=Crown Publishers, Inc.|isbn=0-517-53284-0}}

;Further reading

Berko, Patrick & Viviane (1981). "Dictionary of Belgian painters born between 1750 & 1875", Knokke 1981, p. 272–274.
Janssens, Jacques (1978). James Ensor. New York: Crown Publishers Inc.
{{cite book|first=Xavier|last=Tricot|title=Ensoriana|publisher=Pandora|location=Antwerp|date=1994}}
{{cite book|first=Xavier|last=Tricot|title=James Ensor, Life and work. Catalogue raisonné of his paintings|publisher=HatjeCantz|location=Ostfildern|date=2009}}
{{cite book|first=Xavier|last=Tricot|title=James Ensor. The complete prints|publisher=Deceuninck|location=Roeselare|date=2010}}

External links

{{Internet Archive author |sname=James Ensor}}
[http://www.jamesensor.eu/ James Ensor Online Museum]
[http://www.james-ensor.org/ James Ensor Archief – Publications by or with the cooperation of Patrick Florizoone]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070106150305/http://www.fine-arts-museum.be/site/EN/frames/F_peinture19.html The Royal Museums' Modern Art Collection: 19th-century symbolism, with Ensor's Skeletons fighting for a smoked herring]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060928092612/http://museum.antwerpen.be/kmska/Engels/Engels.htm Exhibition at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp: "Ensor and the Moderns"]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20061214181414/http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artMakerDetails?maker=253 The Getty Museum: James Ensor]
[https://publications.artic.edu/ensor/reader/temptationstanthony James Ensor: The Temptation of Saint Anthony] digital exhibition catalogue
[http://www.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/index.aspx?local=en&p=themaspub&query=identifier=649&toppub=649&page=1 Flemish Art Collection: James Ensor, Graphic Artist] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090327170932/http://www.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/index.aspx?local=en&p=themaspub&query=identifier=649&toppub=649&page=1 |date=27 March 2009 }}
[http://www.kmska.be/Templates/content.aspx?id=2586&LangType=1033 "Goya, Redon, Ensor Grotesque paintings and drawings" 2009 Special Exhibition at KMSKA]{{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
[http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/312 2009 Ensor show at Museum of Modern Art, NYC]
Sanford Schwartz, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/23036 Mysteries of Ensor]," New York Review of Books, 24 September 2009.