The other Ensor

52 unique pieces from the Tournai Museum of Fine Arts are complemented by a selection from our own collections.

Organised in conjunction with the Tournai Museum of Fine Arts, the exhibition presents a unique collection of early works by James Ensor (Ostend, 1860–1949). At the age of twenty, Ensor observed the gestures and attitudes of his fellow citizens from the 4th floor at Rue Longue, no. 44, in Ostend where he lived. Street scenes and portraits, as well as studies of objects or still-life drawings, are presented to the public for the first time, in Liège before Tournai.

Created well before his "masks", these pieces already testify to the biting irony and latent misanthropy of James Ensor, who was a forerunner of the genius of European Expressionism.