Petites Figures Bizarres (Small Strange Portraits) (D., Cr., T., E. 53)

Details

James Ensor (1860-1949)
Petites Figures Bizarres (Small Strange Portraits) (D., Cr., T., E. 53)
drypoint and etching, 1888, on simili-Japan paper, second, final state, signed, dated 18888 and titled in pencil, with wide margins, in very good condition

P. 140 x 100 mm., S. 297 x 237 mm.

Provenance

Mira Jacob Wolfovska (1912-2004), Paris, with her blindstamp (not in Lugt).

Exhibited

Bateau Lavoir, Paris, 1978, no. 53.
Strasbourg/Basel, 1995-96, no. 65.

Special notice

Artist's Resale Right ("Droit de Suite"). Artist's Resale Right Regulations 2006 apply to this lot, the buyer agrees to pay us an amount equal to the resale royalty provided for in those Regulations, and we undertake to the buyer to pay such amount to the artist's collection agent.

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Lot Essay

In this playful etching the Rousseau family metamorphoses into various kinds of insects. On the right, Ernest Rousseau is depicted as a beetle, and his wife Mariette as a butterfly, and on the left their son Ernest is shown as a fly. The disembodied head of Mariette’s sister, Mrs. Théo Hannon, is in the centre, surmounted by a death’s head butterfly. At the lower left Ensor is depicted apparently entering into a Faustian pact with the devil.

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