1885, James Ensor, Skeleton Studying Chinoiseries -- Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Cologne)
From the museum label: A skeleton has made itself comfortable in a brightly lit attic decorated with a colourful array of East Asian wall hangings. Sunk down in a cosy armchair, it has engrossed itself an illustrated concertina-style book. Painter James Ensor particularly delighted in baffling the viewer with weird and wonderful images such as this. By a sarcastic interplay of - seemingly - friendly and familiar ambiences with visual motifs that instill fear in us, this Belgian painter created bewilderment: might there perhaps be an unknown world that exists alongside the one we know...?
1885, James Ensor, Skeleton Studying Chinoiseries -- Wallraf-Richartz Museum (Cologne)
From the museum label: A skeleton has made itself comfortable in a brightly lit attic decorated with a colourful array of East Asian wall hangings. Sunk down in a cosy armchair, it has engrossed itself an illustrated concertina-style book. Painter James Ensor particularly delighted in baffling the viewer with weird and wonderful images such as this. By a sarcastic interplay of - seemingly - friendly and familiar ambiences with visual motifs that instill fear in us, this Belgian painter created bewilderment: might there perhaps be an unknown world that exists alongside the one we know...?