Brussels Art Auctions 06.10.2015

Tuesday

06 • 10 • 2015 - 19.00

Ensor to Permeke A PASSION FOR BELGIAN ART

7 – 9, RUE ERNEST ALLARDSTRAAT (SABLON-ZAVEL) • B-1000 BRUXELLES - BRUSSEL T. +32 (0)2 511 53 24 • INFO@BA-AUCTIONS.COM WWW.BA-AUCTIONS.COM

Dear For your information, we hereby send you a file with works by James Ensor of exceptional quality.

The artworks will be auctioned in Brussels at BA Auctions on Tuesday 6 October 2015.

James Ensor had a penchant for drawing

The file includes the images of a painting from 1894-98 (formerly in the collection of the artist Gust De Smet), a large-scale drawing

The medium enabled him to make on-the-spot and discrete depictions

from 1905, three important drawings (formerly in the collection of

of the objects and people in his immediate surroundings. Always on

Ernest and Mariette Rousseau) and a group of seven sketchbook

the lookout for something interesting or bizarre, he liked to observe

pages from the collection of the late Auguste Taevernier.

everyday life, and captured even the smallest details on paper.

All of these carefully chosen works were preserved in prestigious

Living in an ornate interior, the artist was encircled by all that was

collections and are offered at auction today as a coherent group.

needed to feed his tormented mind and the talents of a gifted eccen-

You will also find technical descriptions of each work, together with an explanatory text for the painting and both groups of drawings.

The auction will take place in Brussels at BA Auctions on Tuesday 6 October 2015, with viewings on 2, 3 and 4 October.

Prior to these dates, the works may be viewed by appointment from

tric. Between 1880 and 1885, Ensor captured almost everything around him in black chalk on paper: his studio and the attributes thereof, the furniture and objects within the parental home and the everyday life of his family. But from his attic studio he also observed what was seen on the streets: magnificent panoramas of people strol-

17 August onwards.

ling along the boulevard. These are ‘exercises’ but, at the same time,

For further details :

provide evidence of a sophisticated observer and an extraordinary

Telephone BA Auctions : +32 2 511 53 24.

artist.

Email : info@BA-auctions.com You can, of course, also contact me for more information via email or telephone.

Yours sincerely,

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11

12

2 500 / 3 500 €

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949)

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949)

Study of a woman

Oil Lamp

signed lower right Ensor black chalk on paper

signed and dated lower right Ensor 81 black chalk on paper laid down on board

Note : Ensor studied the poses of the women around him – his mother, his sister Mitche, his Aunt Mimi and his grandmother – and captured those moments in his sketchbooks.

He used these sketches during the years 1881 and 1882 to realize his great compositions Afternoon in Ostend (T.218) The Bourgeois Salon (T.219), Russian Music (T.220) and The Oyster Eater (T. 224).

22,4 x 17,5 cm. executed circa 1881-82

Provenance : Antwerp, Franck collection (?)

New York, H.Shickman acquired by Ignace Taevernier in 1978 Ghent, Taevernier descendants

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3 000 / 5 000 €

Exhibitions : Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor in Gentse verzamelingen, 18.07-21.09.1969, cat.nr.38 Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Ensor-ein Maler aus dem spätem 19 Jahrhundert, 4.03-7.05.1972, cat.nr.85 Kamakura, Museum of Modern Art, James Ensor, 2.09-10.10.1972, cat.nr.122 Zürich, Kunsthaus, James Ensor, 20.05-31.07.1983, cat.nr.173 Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor, 20.08-30.10.1983, cat.nr.364

22 x 17 cm. executed in 1881

Provenance : Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, 12.03.1955, sale 324, lot 64 Ghent, Auguste Taevernier Ghent, Taevernier descendants

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13

6 000 / 8 000 €

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949) Still Life in the Studio(recto) Silhouettes (verso) signed and dated bottom right J. Ensor 82 black chalk on paper 21,5 x 27 cm. executed in 1882

Provenance : Brussels, Paul Van der Perre Ghent, Auguste Taevernier Ghent, Taevernier descendants Exhibitions : Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor in Gentse verzamelingen, 18.07-21.09.1969, cat.nr.39 Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Ensor-ein Maler aus dem spätem 19 Jahrhundert, 4.03-7.05.1972, cat.nr.90 Zürich, Kunsthaus, James Ensor, 20.05-31.07.1983, cat.nr.174 Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor, 20.08-30.10.1983, cat.nr.365

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14

2 000 / 3 000 €

15

2 000 / 3 000 €

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949)

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949)

Academic Nude

Tulips

signed lower left Ensor black chalk on paper laid down on paper

signed lower right Ensor black chalk and coloured crayons on paper laid down on Japanese paper

22,5 x 17,2 cm. executed circa 1877-79

12,3 x 17,1 cm. executed circa 1884-88

Provenance : Bern, Kornfeld und Klipstein, 10.06.1966, sale 121, lot 257 Ghent, Auguste Taevernier Ghent, Taevernier descendants Exhibitions : Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor in Gentse verzamelingen, 18.07-21.09.1969, cat.nr.77

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Provenance : Jemeppe, Edgard Picard Brussels, Paul Van der Perre Ghent, Auguste Taevernier acquired in 1944 Ghent, Taevernier descendants Exhibitions : Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts, James Ensor, 19.01-17.02.1929, cat.nr.275 Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor in Gentse verzamelingen, 18.07-21.09.1969, cat.nr.86 Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Ensor-ein Maler aus dem spätem 19 Jahrhundert, 4.03-7.05.1972, cat.nr. 152 Kamakura, Museum of Modern Art, James Ensor, 2.09-10.10.1972, cat.nr.138

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16

17

5 000 / 7 000 €

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949)

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949)

Cabinet Moulding and Writing Woman

The Artist Studio

signed lower left and upper right Ensor black chalk on paper laid down on Japanese paper

signed lower left Ensor black chalk on paper laid down on board Exhibitions : Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor in Gentse verzamelingen, 18.07-21.09.1969, cat.nr.75 Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Ensor-ein Maler aus dem spätem 19 Jahrhundert, 4.03-7.05.1972, cat.nr.156 Zürich, Kunsthaus, James Ensor, 20.05-31.07.1983, cat.nr.202 Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor, 20.08-30.10.1983, cat.nr.367

7,2 x 16,4 cm. en 13,3 x 17,5 cm. executed circa 1885-88

Provenance : Ostend, artist studio Brussels, Paul Van der Perre Ghent, Auguste Taevernier acquired in 1944 Ghent, Taevernier descendants

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3 000 / 4 000 €

Exhibitions : Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor in Gentse verzamelingen, 18.07-21.09.1969, cat.nr.38 Stuttgart, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Ensor-ein Maler aus dem spätem 19 Jahrhundert, 4.03-7.05.1972, cat.nr.85 Kamakura, Museum of Modern Art, James Ensor, 2.09-10.10.1972, cat.nr.122 Zürich, Kunsthaus, James Ensor, 20.05-31.07.1983, cat.nr.173 Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor, 20.08-30.10.1983, cat.nr.364

22,2 x 17,1 cm. executed circa 1880-82

Provenance : Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, 3.05.1953, sale 298, lot 83a Ghent, Auguste Taevernier Ghent, Taevernier descendants

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18

80 000 / 120 000 €

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949) The Comic Meal or the Fantastic Revelry signed and dated bottom left Ensor 1905 red and black chalk, watercolour on paper 84 x 51 cm. executed in 1905

Provenance : Brussels, collection Haardt Brussels, collection Fiedler Brussels, Galerie Apollo (nr 2803) Brussels, collection Dansette Acquired from the descendants in 2008 Collection Eric Drossart Exhibitions : Brussels, Galerie Apollo, James Ensor peintures et dessins, 23.12.1944-11.01.1945, cat.nr.73 Brussels, Galerie Isy Brachot, Ensor dans les collections privées, 10.12.1965-25.01.1966, p.61 (ill.)

Literature : Emile Verhaeren, James Ensor, Brussels 1908, p.124 (Le repas comique sanguine) Gregoire Le Roy, James Ensor, Brussels-Paris 1922, p.190 (Le repas comique sanguine) Note : Ensor had a passion for food, and it is a subject that features prominently throughout his entire œuvre. Rays, oysters, meat, cabbages, peaches and strawberries all provided the artist with the opportunity to develop his sense of colour and materiality through rich and earthy still lifes. Meals, either eaten alone or in the company of several guests, were a natural development. In The Oyster Eater (Tricot 224), great attention is paid to the depiction of the dish on the table.

Later, food acquires an allegorical meaning, symbolising artistic nourishment in The Dangerous Cooks (Tricot 381), social indoctrination in Doctrinal Nourishment (Taevernier 79) and orgiastic excess in The Fabulous Revelry. Ensor loved parties, as well as disguises, theatre and all kinds of jokes.

The exuberance of this particular subject enabled the artist to create an image that pays homage to abundance and overindulgence. In a totally chaotic scene, a diverse group of people gorge on chickens, squid, sausages, herrings and frogs, which are difficult to digest.

The scale of this sanguine drawing makes it an exceptionally rare work within Ensor’s œuvre.

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47

600 000 / 750 000 €

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949) Skeletons in Fancy Dress Exhibitions : Ostend, Kursaal, Expositions d’œuvres de James Ensor, 11.8-18.8.1931, cat.nr.46 Têtes de morts

signed and dated bottom left J. EnsoR /94 oil on canvas

Literature : E. Verhaeren, James Ensor, Brussels, 1908, p. 120 (1898) G. Le Roy, James Ensor, Brussels-Paris, 1922, p. 187 (1898) P. Haesaerts, James Ensor, New York, 1959, nr.314, p. 292 (ill.) (Gathering of skeletons, 1894) Xavier Tricot, James Ensor. Catalogue raisonné des peintures, Antwerp 1992, cat.nr.374 (ill.)

Xavier Tricot, James Ensor, sa vie son œuvre. Catalogue raisonné des peintures, Brussels 2009, cat.nr.388 (ill.)

20 x 36,5 cm painted in 1894/(98)

Provenance : Ostend, Dr. Irmin Pleyn Ostend, Galerie Studio, coll.Dr Pleyn, 5.12.1932, lot 3 Sint-Martens-Latem, Gust De Smet Ghent, Van Gheluwe Private collection by descent

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Skulls, masks, hats and death’s-heads, either with or without a lower jawbone, are all attributes that James Ensor painted frequently.

Each possessed an individual significance, profile and iconography.

The reuse of certain compositions is a hallmark of Ensor’s œuvre.

An example of such a compositional scheme is the arrangement of masks in relation to each other, in which a skull sometimes relativizes their otherwise stereotypical emotions. This is true of important works such as The Great Judge (1898) and Death and the Masks (1897).

Only rarely is a tableau devoted entirely to skulls. The upright, static figures in Skeletons Warming Themselves (1889) resemble puppets and they are very different to the nine skulls depicted in Skeletons in Fancy Dress.

Here, Ensor is the God who graces the skulls with souls.

The skulls in this painting are remarkably expressive and almost ‘human’(1). They are rendered in a tantalising and evocative manner, with the yellow bony plates of the skull joined by cranial sutures.

Ensor was in possession of real specimens, that much is evident.

To suggest veins, he traced lines in blue paint.

Yet the human aspect of the skulls is primarily rendered through their mutual ‘contact’. Their swaggering, facetious attitude, the occasional pairings, their emotive gazes and tongues, in particular, all combine to make them appear more ‘human’.

Death presides over the animated scene from the top left-hand corner.

Dressed in a starched collar decorated with ochre piping, he steers the conversation with his sharp tongue. It ripples over the gathering of skulls as though whipping up controversy.

These tongues are long (elongated with a blue line) and slimy or, as seen in the top right-hand corner, coiled inside a cranial cavity like a snake with its prey.

They call to mind hissing, suspicious vipers spewing forth dirt. When two tongues touch, it does not resemble a kiss, the impression short-circuited by Ensor’s abundant use of mucus and venom.

These are muscular scandalmongers stirring up rumours. The character in pink emphasizes his/her point with a raised index finger.

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These are the tongues of the bourgeoisie, whom Ensor personified via four hats: the beautiful blue Stetson, a red hat decorated with an amaryllis(2), the straw boater and a top hat in Prussian blue. They gossip viciously as they walk under a typically Ensorian sky: blue and white, mother-of-pearl tints, painted in impasto. Ensor enlivens their almost monochrome attire with a plethora of loosely painted pictorial details add to the surface texture.

Despite the liveliness of the characters and the intensity of emotions within this work, it is primarily a memento mori, or a vanitas painting.

Everything is ephemeral: wealth and pleasure, as much as the bourgeoisie and their idle gossip.

Nevertheless, Ensor was deeply wounded by criticism of his work and it goes without saying that this satirical painting was inspired by events in his own life.

Patrick Florizoone, 2015 James Ensor Archive, Ghent (1) The same expressive skull was etched by Ensor in 1889, and takes the form of a self-portrait (first state) that is totally ‘flayed’, with only the hair and the eyes suggestive of the artist (second state).

(2) This is the same hat seen in Death and the Masks (1897). The triangle of red balls is replaced by several dabs of pink paint.

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The Ensor drawings in the Rousseau collection These three drawings (lots 49, 50 & 51) by Ensor are part of a series of thirty-one works that belonged to Ernest and Mariette Rousseau-Hannon, a family with whom Ensor regularly stayed when in Brussels. Part of the city’s intellectual community, Ernest was a science professor and rector of the ULB, while his wife, Mariette, was a mycologist. They played a fundamental role in Ensor’s artistic development and were more than just patrons and a source of inspiration: above all else, they were dear friends of the artist.

This is evidenced by a correspondence comprising some 350 letters. In her letters to Ensor, Mariette encourages the artist to create and asks after his artistic production. In return, Ensor promises to send new drawings.

It has always been assumed that these drawings, which combine realistic and surrealistic elements, were created in two phases between 1883 and 1889.

The artist drew details of objects from his immediate surroundings in black chalk and these forms, usually comprising scrolls and curves, stimulated his imagination and his creativity. Everything – from the base of a standard lamp to fireside utensils – could result in a new image from an imaginary world.

Ensor had a great fondness for caricature and was constantly looking for fresh inspiration in his daily environment. The souvenirs, shells and masks in his mother’s shop, Mariette’s insect collection or Japanese prints, which were then very popular, were his main wellspring. His penchant for satire and travesty, his passion for folk parades and political marches, in addition to a wide variety of literary sources, were all fuel to his inexhaustible imagination.

These drawings have a central place within Ensor’s work and can be considered, in a certain sense, to be the nerve centre of his entire œuvre.

This ensemble was regularly exhibited as a whole during Ensor’s lifetime. Six drawings were sold in 1963. The remaining twenty-five drawings were kept together until 1983, when they were sold by Knoedler in Zurich and subsequently dispersed.

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49

20 000 / 25 000 â‚Ź

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949) Fireplace Utensils and Masks black chalk on paper 22,2 x 17,5 cm. executed circa 1880-85 and 1886-89

Provenance : Brussels, Ernest & Mariette Rousseau, Brussels, Ernest Rousseau jr Brussels, Jeanne Demany-Rousseau Ghent, private collection Acquired in 2000 Collection Eric Drossart Exhibitions : Brussels, Palais de Beaux Arts, RĂŠtrospective James Ensor, 19.01-17.02.1929, cat.nrs.77-99 Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, James Ensor, 06-08.1951, cat.nr.49 Basel, Kunsthalle ; Munster, Landesmuseum, James Ensor, 15.06-4.08.1963.

Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor in Gentse verzamelingen, 18.07-21.09.1969, cat.nr.56 New York, The Drawing Center, Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor, 27.04-21.08. 2001, cat.nr.28 (ill.)

Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Goya, Redon, Ensor : Groteske schilderijen en tekeningen, 14.03-14.06.2009, p.145 (ill.)

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50

15 000 / 20 000 â‚Ź

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949) Lamp Base with demons black chalk on paper 22,4 x 17,4 cm executed circa 1880-85 and 1886-89

Provenance : Brussels, Ernest & Mariette Rousseau, Brussels, Ernest Rousseau jr Brussels, Jeanne Demany-Rousseau Ghent, private collection Acquired in 2000 Collection Eric Drossart Exhibitions : Brussels, Palais de Beaux Arts, RĂŠtrospective James Ensor, 19.01-17.02.1929, cat.nrs.77-99 Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, James Ensor, 06-08.1951, cat.nr.45 Basel, Kunsthalle ; Munster, Landesmuseum, James Ensor, 15.06-4.08.1963.

Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor in Gentse verzamelingen, 18.07-21.09.1969, cat.nr.55 New York, The Drawing Center, Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor, 27.04-21.08. 2001, cat.nr.31 (ill.)

Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Goya, Redon, Ensor : Groteske schilderijen en tekeningen, 14.03-14.06.2009, p.153 (ill.)

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51

10 000 / 15 000 â‚Ź

JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949) Decorative motifs and face black chalk on paper 22,5 x 16,0 cm. executed circa 1885-88

Provenance : Brussels, Ernest & Mariette Rousseau, Brussels, Ernest Rousseau jr Brussels, Jeanne Demany-Rousseau Ghent, private collection Acquired in 2000 Collection Eric Drossart Exhibitions : Brussels, Palais de Beaux Arts, RĂŠtrospective James Ensor, 19.01-17.02.1929, cat.nrs.77-99 Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, James Ensor, 06-08.1951, cat.nr. 38 Basel, Kunsthalle ; Munster, Landesmuseum, James Ensor, 15.06-4.08.1963.

Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ensor in Gentse verzamelingen, 18.07-21.09.1969, cat.nr.54 New York, The Drawing Center, Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor, 27.04-21.08. 2001, cat.nr.26 (ill.)

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