Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor

My Life in a Nutshell evening,and I won secondprize for drawing I was born in 186o in Ostend, a small town at from classicalheads. the time encircled by ramparts of the most Thus, for three years,I drew from ancient sea. by the salted by ditches beautifirl green and My father was a solid Englishman, born in models in the eveningand painted figures Brusselsin r835, my mother, an inhabitant of from life in the day;at night I composedor cartographiedmy dreams.The composition Ostend, delicately Spaniardized.

My mother sustainedme with pralines and contestinterestedme aboveall; from that sugaredalmonds,and a good aunt infused me period date a few works that are still well regarded today, such as Returnfrom Caluary, with overly sugaredmilk. Reason,the man' and instruction of my father, a superior Judas Throwing Money into the hmple, Danceof his big boots inspired fear and terror in me. the NympbqJudith and Holofernes,The Death At the "Colldge Notre-Dame" benevolent of Jezabel,Monks in a State of EcstasyClaim the Bodyof the TheologianOais despiteOpposition teacherseducatedme gently.

The taste for painting came at around thir- from the BishopFriton or Friston (Mystic Death teen; then, two pickled and oily old painters of a Tbeologiaz).This composition, which from Ostend,Van Cuyck and Dubaq initiated Portaels,the most eclecticof professors,kept me professoriallyinto the deceptiveeffectsof for a long time, causeda great stir.

Then I painted a humble seryant,Woman their dreary meager,bleak m6tier. But at fifTurned-upNose,currently in the Mus6e zuitb surroundings of Ostend's views teen I painted from nature; these little works free of preten- d'Anvers.The spectacleof the street also preoccupiedme, and my pictorial appetites tion, paintings in petrol on pink cardboard developed.I sketchedpassers-by,apples,fowl, me today. charm still blue flasks....Iused every method: pencil, At seventeen,I entered the Acad6mie de watercolor,gouache.And Light enteredleapBruxelles, and was admitted right away to a classin painting from life, under the iron rule ing, like a kid, knocking over tables, distorting glassesand bottles, shatteringwindow-panes ofthree professorswhose accentsclashed, and dishes. along with their opinions:JosephStallaert, Back in Ostend in my parents' shoP, AlexandreRobert, andJef Van Severdonck. chinoiserieand my portraits. In I painted impetuous Jean Portaels, an important and director, in favor and well-considered,imperi- rBSo,TheLamplighter,in r88r Portrait of My Father and RussianMusic, in rB8z, Por"traitof ously lectured on questionsof art. Fellow Motber.,works currently in the Mus6e de My Eward, Crespin, Duyok, students Khnopff, and some wayward boys who were bridled and Bruxelles, Lady in Distress,at the Mus6e du fettered toiled in boredom and without love. Jeu de Paumein Paris.

In r88r, I had my debut at La Chrysalide As soon as I got there, great boredom ensued.I was ordered to paint, from a virgin where I exhibited Tlte Colorist,then at "I-lEssor"where they refused WomanEating plaster cast,the bust of Octavian, the most which is now well-situated in the Oysters, plaster white The snowy Caesars. augustof Mus6e d'Anvers. irritated me. I made its goosefleshpink and In r883, masksprofoundly affectedme. bright, and I reddenedthe hair to the great Masks (mus6ede Bruxelles) had Scandalized folstudents-excitement of the excitement held their head high, breakthrough, lowed by vexation, face-making,and blows. their made themselvesconspicuous,round-eyed, In the face of my boldness,the stardedprorecumbent. fessorsdid not push the matter, and subseIn r 884, while stewingin his juicesand an quently I painted freely from live models. admirer of Marie le Hollandais, Vogels raved In order to learn to respectacademicart, about my painting, surprised and influenced I drew and dusted the plaster models in the