James Frederic Ensor, bust,
Artist: Edmond de Valériola,
Location: Ostende, Belgien

James Ensor (April 13, 1860 - November 19, 1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important precursor to expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for almost his entire life. He was associated with the artistic group Les XX. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (960x1248, 174 KB) James Ensor (1860-1949), famous Belgian painter Bust by Edmond De Valériola (1877-1956) (1930) ; Oostende, Belgium Own work - photo taken by Georges Jansoone on 6 May 2005; background edited File links The following pages link to... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (960x1248, 174 KB) James Ensor (1860-1949), famous Belgian painter Bust by Edmond De Valériola (1877-1956) (1930) ; Oostende, Belgium Own work - photo taken by Georges Jansoone on 6 May 2005; background edited File links The following pages link to... April 13 is the 103rd day of the year (104th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1860 is the leap year starting on Sunday. ... is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Painting by Rembrandt self-portrait Detail from Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez, in which the painter portrayed himself at work For the computer graphics program, see Corel Painter. ... Printmaking is a process for producing a work of art in ink; the work (called a print) is created indirectly, through the transfer of ink from the surface upon which the work was originally drawn or otherwise composed. ... The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893) which inspired 20th century Expressionists Portrait of Eduard Kosmack by Egon Schiele Rehe im Walde by Franz Marc Elbe Bridge I by Rolf Nesch On White II by Wassily Kandinsky, 1923. ... Yves Tanguy Indefinite Divisibility 1942 Surrealism[1] is a cultural movement that began in the mid-1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members. ... The esplanade with the Thermae Palace, the former Royal Residence and the casino For other uses, see Ostend (disambiguation). ... Les XX was a group of twenty Belgian painters, designers and sculptors, formed in 1883 by the Brussels lawyer, publisher, and entrepreneur Octave Maus. ...

Biography

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. Languages English Religions Christianity (Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism and other minority denominations), and other faiths. ... The term Flemings (Dutch: ) denotes the majority population in Flanders (the northern half of Belgium). ... Nickname: Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: , Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 979 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989 Government  - Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area  - Region 162 km²  (62. ... This Belgian biographical article is a stub. ...

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.

During 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.^[1] // Invention of the Jacquard loom in 1801. ... Flor Alpaerts (Antwerp, 12 September 1876 – Antwerp, 5 October 1954) was a Belgian conductor, pedagogue and composer. ... Baron is a specific title of nobility or a more generic feudal qualification. ... Albert I (April 8, 1875 – February 17, 1934) was the third King of the Belgians. ...

James Ensor is considered to be an innovator in 19th century art, and to have influenced Klee, Emil Nolde,^[2] and other expressionist and surrealist painters of the 20th century. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Paul Klee (IPA: kleː) (December 18, 1879 to June 29, 1940) was a Swiss painter of German nationality. ... Maskenstilleben (Masks Still Life), watercolor on paper, 1911. ... Surrealism is an artistic movement and an aesthetic philosophy that aims for the liberation of the mind by emphasizing the critical and imaginative powers of the subconscious. ...

His works are prominently featured in the Modern Art Museum of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, and exhibited in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. A collection of his letters is held in the Contemporary Art Archives of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts in Brussels. Dejeuner sur lHerbe by Pablo Picasso At the Moulin Rouge: Two Women Waltzing by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1892 The Scream by Edvard Munch, 1893 I and the Village by Marc Chagall, 1911 Fountain by Marcel Duchamp, 1917 Campbells Soup Cans 1962 Synthetic polymer paint on thirty-two... The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (French: Les Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique; Dutch: Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België), situated in Brussels, includes some 20,000 paintings, sculptures and drawings. ... Nickname: Map showing the location of Brussels in Belgium Coordinates: , Country Belgium Region Brussels-Capital Region Founded 979 Founded (Region) June 18, 1989 Government  - Mayor (Municipality) Freddy Thielemans Area  - Region 162 km²  (62. ... Since 1810 the Antwerp Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (eng:The Royal Museum of Fine Arts) has housed a collection of paintings, sculptures and drawings from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries. ... For other uses, see Antwerp (disambiguation). ...

References in other media

• In the 1978 movie Halloween the main character has a poster of a James Ensor painting in her bedroom.
• In 1994, a new audience was introduced to James Ensor when the alternative rock band They Might Be Giants released the song "Meet James Ensor" from the album John Henry.
• The 1996 Belgian movie Camping Cosmos (produced by Ostend producer Francis De Smet) 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), in reference to the yearly "Bal du Rat Mort" which was founded by Ensor and his friends in Ostend in 1898. The comic Le Bal du Rat mort by the same author, Jan Bucquoy, was also inspired by Ensor. Bucquoy performed the theatrical play Masques ostendais by Michel de Ghelderode which was directly inspired by Ensor.

Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... Halloween (also known as John Carpenters Halloween) is a 1978 American independent horror film set in the fictional Midwest town of Haddonfield, Illinois on Halloween. ... See also: 1994 in music (UK) Musical groups established in 1994 Record labels established in 1994 // January 25 - P.O.D. - Snuff the Punk January 29 - The Supremes Mary Wilson is injured when her jeep hits a freeway median and flips over just outside of Los Angeles, California. ... Alternative rock (also called alternative music or simply alternative; known primarily in the UK as indie) is a genre of rock music that emerged in the 1980s and became widely popular in the 1990s. ... They Might Be Giants (commonly abbreviated to TMBG) is an American alternative rock duo consisting of John Linnell and John Flansburgh that formed in 1982. ... John Henry is the name of They Might Be Giants fifth original album, although it is the sixth disc in their discography. ... This is a list of film-related events in 1996. ... Camping Cosmos is the second comedy in the film trilogy The Sexual Life of the Belgians (of which La Vie sexuelle des Belges 1950-78 is the first part), starring Claude Semal, Lolo Ferrari, Noël Godin. ... Francis De Smet, born Bruges December 3, 1963. ... 1887 (MDCCCLXXXVII) is a common year starting on Saturday (click on link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Monday of the Julian calendar. ... Year 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display calendar). ... Year 1889 (MDCCCLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The esplanade with the Thermae Palace, the former Royal Residence and the casino For other uses, see Ostend (disambiguation). ... Year 1898 (MDCCCXCVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Monday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar). ... Comics (or, less commonly, sequential art) is a form of visual art consisting of images which are commonly combined with text, often in the form of speech balloons or image captions. ... Jan Bucquoy (b. ... Michel De Ghelderode (1898 - 1962) was an avante-garde Belgian dramatist, writing in French. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

James Ensor

• The Royal Museums' Modern Art Collection: 19th C. symbolism, with Ensor's "Skeletons fighting for a smoked herring"
• Exhibition at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp: "Ensor and the Moderns"
• The Getty Museum: James Ensor

Image File history File links Commons-logo. ... The Wikimedia Commons (also called Wikicommons) is a repository of free content images, sound and other multimedia files. ...

Notes

References

• Becks-Malorny, Ulrike (2000). James Ensor. Cologne: Taschen. ISBN 3-8228-5858-7
• Farmer, John David (1976) Ensor. New York: George Braziller. ISBN 0-8076-0836-X