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Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
JAMES ENSOR La Multiplication des Poissons.
Etching, 1891. 174x232 mm; 7x9 3/8 inches, full margins. Signed, titled and dated in pencil, lower margin. A very good impression.
Ensor (1860-1949) was born in Brussels to educated parents; his father was an engineer with English parents born in Brussels, and his mother was Belgian. He dropped out of school at age 15 to pursue his studies as an artist with two local painters, then attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels from the ages of 17-20, early on establishing his artistic aptitude. Ensor was throughout his career a fairly isolated artist, he had his studio from 1880 to 1917 in the attic of his parent's house and his travels consisted only of several short trips to France and the Netherlands (1880s) and a four-day trip to London (1892). He lived in the small Belgian seaside town of Ostend for most of his adult life and rarely left (he remained in Ostend through World War II despite the risk of bombardment).
The mid-1890s marked a watershed period in the artist's career, not just popularity-wise, but also in his turn to subject matter which scathingly criticized Belle Époque society as well as organized religion. Ensor showed his personal disgust for the inhumanity of the world through aggressively sarcastic religious scenes and depictions of everyday life. He was a forerunner of 20th century Expressionism and a major influence on artists such as Paul Klee, Emil Nolde and George Grosz. A prolific printmaker, Ensor created 133 etchings and drypoints over the course of his career. Delteil 83; Taevernier 85; Elesh 85.
