In this extract from his new book, Timothy Hyman explores how the visionary Belgian painter remade figurative painting in his own macabre manner.
An anti-establishment artist with plenty to say, James Ensor’s scribblings are just as eccentric as his paintings. As an insight into his whimsical works, here’s a selection of Ensor’s inner musings – on art, critics and his naughty pug.
The Belgian artist James Ensor painted life through the lens of the carnival, creating unsettling and often satirical works. Michael Prodger searches for the man behind these intriguing images.
In 2016 the RA celebrates the life and work of James Ensor, whose macabre paintings of crowds and carnivals made him one of Belgium’s most prominent artists of the early twentieth century.