James Ensor

Sam Salz, Paris & New York
L.A. Geleyns, Brussels
Galerie Isy Brachot, Brussels (by 1965-66)
Acquired in the late 1980s

Brussels, Galerie Isy Brachot, Ensor dans les collections privées, 1965-66, no. 37 (titled Nature morte aux coquillages and with incorrect dimensions)
Geneva, Galerie Motte, Exposition James Ensor, 1966, no. 8 (titled Les coquillages)

Xavier Tricot, James Ensor, Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, 1902-1941, vol. II, London, 1992, no. 596, illustrated p. 555

Work is in good condition. Canvas has not been lined. The surface is quite dirty. Faint stretcher bar marks around four edges. A thin line of loss about 3 inches long corresponds to central bar mark about 4 inches above the central figure Under UV light no inpainting is apparent. Otherwise fine.
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James Ensor is widely considered one of the finest Belgian painters of the 20th century. His unique style and subject matter show a clear reaction to pointillism and a strong influence from the old masters of Northern Europe. In depicting this still life of sundry objects, Ensor shows a strange fascination with the weird and wonderful artifacts and ornaments of his mother's souvenir shops in Ostende, where he grew up as a child. The painterly and mannered approach to his work makes the otherwise mundane objects come alive in a bold and color-filled composition.

Indeed, this vibrant still life encapsulates a blend of tradition and fantasy that is characteristic of the complex and divided personality of the artist. For James Ensor, an irreverent disregard for convention was second nature; while at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, he was the anarchist student who parodied conservative teachings. Yet this work exemplifies sympathy with the classical still lives of the Flemish Old Masters, particularly in a fascination with rendering of light that was such a central preoccupation of artists such as Pieter Claesz and Jan Davidsz de Heem. Ensor's enthusiasm for "light that tumbles in like a child" (Robert Hoozee, 'Ensor and his Environment' in James Ensor 1860-1949, Theatre of Masks (exhibition catalogue), Barbican Art Gallery, London, 1997, p. 25) is exemplified by the atmosphere of airy luminosity of his work, and the glazed ceramics help evoke the limpid quality of Dutch light.

Ensor saw life and the constituent items around it as a constant source of inspiration. Few paintings show this mindset quite as vividly as Magots, pots et coquillages. As Ensor himself said, "Everything is a matter for painting, everything is good enough to be painted, everything is beautiful enough to be painted" (quoted in Paul Haesaerts, James Ensor, New York, 1959, p. 94).