ENSOR, JAMES SIDNEY
1860 Ostende–1949 Ostende

Title: "Gestes de nymphes".
Date: 1940.
Technique: Oil on wood.
Measurement: 27 x 36 cm.
Notation: Signed lower left: ENSOr. Signed and titled verso centre: Ensor gestes de nymphes.
Frame: Craftsman's frame.



Provenance:
- - Alexandra Daveluy, Ostend (the artist’s niece)

- Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, auction 2.6.1950, lot 169

- Galerie Geroux, Brussels, 167th auction, 24.2.1951, lot 65

- Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, auction 22.5.1962, lot 407

- Christie’s, London, auction 1.12.1987, lot 168

- Galerie Hachmeister, Münster

- Lempertz Kunstauktionen, Cologne, 704th auction, 4.6.1994, lot 142

- Galerie Michael Werner, Berlin (label)

- Private collection, Berlin


Exhibition:
- Galerie Hachmeister, Münster 1988/89


Literature:
- Tricot, Xavier: James Ensor – Die Gemälde, Ostfildern 2009 (2nd revised ed.), cat. rais. no. 835, ill.

- Tricot, Xavier: Ensoriana. L'hareng saur, Ostend 1985, p. 36, no. 39d

- Exhib. cat. Galerie Hachmeister, Münster 1988/89



- A humorous exploration of a classical motif

- Theatrical effects of light and air heighten the unreality of the mythological scene

- An outstanding late work by the exceptional Belgian artist and pioneer of Modernism



When Masks Speak: Ensor’s Grotesque World

James Ensor’s mother ran a shop selling souvenirs, shells, curiosities, novelty items, masks, and carnival costumes. The abundance of objects stimulated Ensor’s imagination from an early age and nourished his fascination with staging and transformation, eccentricity, and carnival.

Ensor remained throughout his life an outsider whose deeply subjective vision gave rise not only to a highly individual and allusive symbolism but also to an idiosyncratic stylistic pluralism.

“One must find one’s own method. Every new work should employ a new method.”

(James Ensor, quoted in exhibition catalogue James Ensor, Zurich/Antwerp, 1983, p. 132)

Nor did Ensor shy away from explicit references to art history, recognizing in his two most important models—J. M. W. Turner and Francisco Goya—“two masters of light and violence.”

(James Ensor, quoted in exhibition catalogue James Ensor – The Graphic Work – Collection Mira Jacob, Strasbourg/Basel, 1995, p. 21)

By the mid-1880s, Ensor moved away from his largely naturalistic, dark-toned early work and, through an increasing emancipation of colour, arrived at the fantastical mature oeuvre for which he is best known. Pale white became his fundamental colour—a tone reminiscent of the opaque makeup worn by clowns or Pierrots. Ensor created a grotesque fantasy world populated by vanitas motifs, in which grotesque figures embody human abysses and masks become macabre protagonists.

“For me, the mask signifies: freshness of tone, exaggerated expression, splendid decoration, grand unexpected gesture, uninhibited movement, exquisite turbulence.”

(James Ensor, quoted in Paul Haesaerts, James Ensor, Stuttgart, 1957, p. 163)



A Diffuse Atmospheric Space

Like other paintings from Ensor’s late phase, the present work stylistically bears the mark of the Rococo. Around 1900, he created luminous compositions in delicately nuanced pastel tones. Stronger colour contrasts appear only sparingly within an otherwise restrained palette.

Alongside the brighter chromatic atmosphere, the themes themselves also diverge somewhat from Ensor’s earlier morbid subjects, turning instead toward playful mythological content. Here, a circle of nymphs frolics within a seemingly paradisiacal landscape.

The suggested green meadow in the foreground, the body of water beyond, and the sky stretching across the entire pictorial field merge into a diffuse atmospheric space. Within this carefree, almost naïve scene, exotic birds can be discerned—including a peacock with expressive plumage in blue and red—as well as scattered fish. A nymph with a mermaid’s tail emerges from the water, while two graceful female figures at the shore arrange their hair.



The Effect of Light and Colour

Although Ensor rejected association with the Impressionists, he shared with them an enduring preoccupation with the conditions of light. Spending nearly his entire life in Ostend, he was captivated by the shimmering luminosity of the Belgian coast.

Ensor understood light as an active creative force—one that shaped perception and contributed to new, liberated ways of seeing. Above all, in the dissolution of figures into vibrating patches of colour and erratic, shifting contours, Ensor recognized a departure from the traditional academic style, with its demand for clear outlines and closed forms.

Here too, the contours of naked bodies—more sketchily suggested than fully rendered—momentarily emerge from the dense white haze, only to vanish again almost immediately. Ensor understood this ephemeral existence within the image as merely an effect of light and colour, while simultaneously pointing toward the immaterial nature of these mythological beings.



A Parody of Illusionistic Rococo Effects

Mirroring the exuberant play of the nymphs, who drift anarchically through the air, the pictorial structure itself threatens to come undone within this light-filled space. The dominant white tone in the central oval field of the composition acts almost like a vortex, dissolving spatial coordinates and setting everything into dynamic motion.

Through the division of the picture plane, Ensor references the illusionistic spatial effects of Rococo ceiling paintings, whose purpose was to open heavenly realms or imagined new worlds to the viewer. At the same time, however, through his rapid, sketch-like brushwork and deliberate renunciation of spatial depth, he humorously undermines the illusionistic effect of these carefully staged compositions.

In doing so, Ensor’s depiction becomes a parody both of the subject matter and of the pictorial genre itself.

Bettina Haiss



Estimated shipping costs for this lot:
The lot is unsuitable for parcel shipping. Transport only by shipping company after consultation following the auction.

additional shipping insurance


Shipping insurance

up to total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: max. 41.65 Euro

over a total invoice amount of 25,000 Euros: 1.8 o/oo


USA by individual arrangement after the auction.




#James Sidney Ensor #Symbolism #Flanders #Modern Art #1940s #Mythology #Oil #Painting #Modern Art.







In accordance with §26 UrhG (German Copyright Act), VAN HAM is obliged to pay a statutory resale royalty on the sale proceeds of all original works of fine art and photography whose authors have not been deceased for 70 years prior to the end of the calendar year of the sale. The buyer shall contribute 1.5% of the hammer price to this fee.