James Ensor: Scenes from the Life of Christ

In 1912-1913, James Ensor produced a series of 32 drawings in coloured pencil titled Scenes de la vie du Christ [Scenes from the life of Christ]. Each drawing on paper measures about 15 by 21 cm. The series depicts different episodes from the lives of Jesus and the Virgin Mary. In it, Ensor managed to combine the sublime and the grotesque in an unsurpassed manner. Some compositions are quite conventional, others typically ‘Ensorian’, and some even humorous. Among the works in the series is a drawing in which Ensor portrays himself as Christ, confronted with a dozen Belgian art critics who have gathered before him. In 1929 the drawings were made into lithographs and published in the form of an album by Galerie Georges Giroux in Brussels. These drawings can be considered as a link between the Ostend master’s early and later oeuvre. The series combines various motifs which Ensor also executed in oil paint. The author of the work, Xavier Tricot, also pays close attention to the figure of Christ in James Ensor’s work. From 1885 onward, the figure of Christ occupied a central position in Ensor’s oeuvre. In some of his works, the artist identified with the Messiah.