James Ensor Belgian, 1860-1949 Vierge et Mondaine, circa 1933 Signed Ensor (ll) Pastel on paper 8 x 11 1/4 inches (20.3 x 28.5 cm) Provenance: Acquired in Belgium in the 1950's Thence by descent In this light-filled pastel, the artist assembles objects he gathered together in the attic studio he occupied for most of his life, above the family's antique and souvenir shop in Ostend, Belgium. A crowned figure of a Virgin dominates the scene on one side and a dainty female figure in a purple gown on the other. The table is laid with vases of flowers, books, shells, a puppet whose deflated body drapes over the table and a figurine with a carnival-mask lying on its back. The outwardly peaceful arrangement is upset by the presence of an Asian skeleton mask which appears ready to devour the recumbent figurine. The puppet is the same one that Ensor used in his painting Still Life with Chinoiserie (Xavier Tricot, James Ensor Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings, 1992, vol. II 1902-1941, no. 576). Ensor's world was inhabited by demons and dreams, from his early memories of his grandmother wearing a frightening Carnival mask to the yearly Carnival revels in Ostend. The artist's early work was filled with dark bourgeois interiors, but his palette lightened in response to avant-garde movements. Ensor remembered that his childhood was spent in the family shop: ...surrounded by the curiosities from the sea and the splendours of mother-of-pearl with a thousand iridescent gleams and bizarre skeletons, monsters and marine plants. The proximity of these wonders, the colours, this light-filled gleaming opulence, undoubtedly helped turn me into a painter in love with colour and sensitive to the dazzling play of light. [Xavier Tricot, James Ensor Life and Work, The Complete Paintings, Brussels, 2009, p. 13] The pastel is a version of the oil Vierge et Mondaine, circa 1933 in the Fine Arts Museum in Bilbao, Spain. We are very grateful to the Ensor Advisory Committee for their assistance in dating and cataloguing this pastel.We have received a report from the Committee discussing the date and motifs of this work, which is available on request. C The Collection of Cecilia and Willem Schupf
The pastel is taped on all sides to the front mat with paper tape. The sides and the lower margin have come loose, leaving tape attached to the sheet [but not the mat]. The tape along the upper margin is in place. There is also a faint staining along the top [1 inch]. There is a sheet covering 7/8 of the verso attached at the edges by tape. Rippling of the sheet at the top.
James Ensor Belgian, 1860-1949 Vierge et Mondaine, circa 1933 Signed Ensor (ll) Pastel on paper 8 x 11 1/4 inches (20.3 x 28.5 cm) Provenance: Acquired in Belgium in the 1950's Thence by descent In this light-filled pastel, the artist assembles objects he gathered together in the attic studio he occupied for most of his life, above the family's antique and souvenir shop in Ostend, Belgium. A crowned figure of a Virgin dominates the scene on one side and a dainty female figure in a purple gown on the other. The table is laid with vases of flowers, books, shells, a puppet whose deflated body drapes over the table and a figurine with a carnival-mask lying on its back. The outwardly peaceful arrangement is upset by the presence of an Asian skeleton mask which appears ready to devour the recumbent figurine. The puppet is the same one that Ensor used in his painting Still Life with Chinoiserie (Xavier Tricot, James Ensor Catalogue Raisonne of the Paintings, 1992, vol. II 1902-1941, no. 576). Ensor's world was inhabited by demons and dreams, from his early memories of his grandmother wearing a frightening Carnival mask to the yearly Carnival revels in Ostend. The artist's early work was filled with dark bourgeois interiors, but his palette lightened in response to avant-garde movements. Ensor remembered that his childhood was spent in the family shop: ...surrounded by the curiosities from the sea and the splendours of mother-of-pearl with a thousand iridescent gleams and bizarre skeletons, monsters and marine plants. The proximity of these wonders, the colours, this light-filled gleaming opulence, undoubtedly helped turn me into a painter in love with colour and sensitive to the dazzling play of light. [Xavier Tricot, James Ensor Life and Work, The Complete Paintings, Brussels, 2009, p. 13] The pastel is a version of the oil Vierge et Mondaine, circa 1933 in the Fine Arts Museum in Bilbao, Spain. We are very grateful to the Ensor Advisory Committee for their assistance in dating and cataloguing this pastel.We have received a report from the Committee discussing the date and motifs of this work, which is available on request. C The Collection of Cecilia and Willem Schupf
The pastel is taped on all sides to the front mat with paper tape. The sides and the lower margin have come loose, leaving tape attached to the sheet [but not the mat]. The tape along the upper margin is in place. There is also a faint staining along the top [1 inch]. There is a sheet covering 7/8 of the verso attached at the edges by tape. Rippling of the sheet at the top.
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