James Ensor

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Description

James Ensor
JONQUILLES, LILAS ET VIOLETTES
signed Ensor and dated 93 (lower left)
oil on canvas
58 by 70cm., 22 7/8 by 27 1/2 in.

Provenance

Albert Croquez, Paris
Acquired by the family of the present owner in the 1960s

Exhibited

Brussels, Musée d'Art Moderne, Les XX, Xème exposition annuelle, 1893, no. 10 (titled Fleurs)
Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, 1920, no. 69
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Rétrospective James Ensor, 1929, no. 208
Ostende, Kursaal, Œuvres de James Ensor, 1931, no. 63
London, Leicester Galleries, Paintings, Drawings and Etchings by James Ensor, 1936, no. 82
Paris, Galerie de l'Élysée (Alex Maguy), James Ensor, 1937
Paris, Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Ensor , 1939, no. 38
London, Marlborough Fine Art, James Ensor 1860-1960, A Retrospective Centenary Exhibition, 1960, no. 68
Brussels, Galery Isy Brachot, James Ensor dans les collections privées, 1965-66, no. 20

Literature

Emile Verhaeren, James Ensor, Brussels, 1908, p. 119 (titled Fleurs, 1895)
Grégoire Le Roy, James Ensor, Brussels, 1922, p. 185 (titled Fleurs, 1895)
Paul Fierens, James Ensor, Paris, 1929, illustrated p. 122 (titled Fleurs)
Paul Haesaerts, James Ensor, no. 308, illustrated p. 281 (titled Still life)
Xavier Tricot, James Ensor, Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Antwerp, 1992, vol. I, no. 354, illustrated p. 342

Catalogue Note

Ensor often arranged compositions on the mantle of his fireplace (fig. 1), carefully selecting a variety of objects including flowers, masks, paintings and souvenirs from his parents' store. In the present composition, however, Ensor has chosen to focus mainly on flowers. Rather than crowd the setting with an assemblage of objects against a background of his paintings, he has created an elegant and balanced composition with fewer elements and a pleasing palette of pinks, blues and greens.

According to Gisèle Ollinger-Zinque, more than half of Ensor’s drawings and one third of his paintings are still-lifes, a testament to his continuing interest in the subject: 'The still-life enabled Ensor throughout his career to develop new pictorial techniques, to explore possible compositions and to create new things of his own. Right to the very end, it provided him with a compliant subject that offered an infinite variety of technical possibilities, ranging from realism by way of naturalism and Impressionism to the diaphanous colours and undulating lines of Art Nouveau. The still-life genre highlights the evolution of Ensor’s œuvre, helping us to make out a succession of different periods, each summed up in a handful of key works' (G. Ollinger-Zinque, Ensor (exhibition catalogue), Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, 1999, p. 32).

Fig. 1 Ensor in front of his fireplace, 1926