Les Bains à Ostende (The Baths at Ostend) (D., Cr., T. 115; E. 120)

Details

James Ensor (1860-1949)
Les Bains à Ostende (The Baths at Ostend) (D., Cr., T. 115; E. 120)
etching, 1899, on simili-Japan, second, final state, signed in pencil, countersigned and titled in pencil verso, with small margins, in very good condition

P. 223 x 280 mm., S. 320 x 500 mm.

Provenance

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

Exhibited

Bateau Lavoir, Paris, 1978, no. 115.
Strasbourg/Basel, 1995-96, no. 137.

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

Ensor draws influence from the burlesque scenes of Bruegel’s peasants at play in this satirical account of bathers at the beach at Ostend. Candid scenes are acted before the condescending gaze of the upper classes. The scandalous behavior of the beach-goers proved too progressive for the artists’ group of La Libre Esthétique, who criticized it openly, but found favour with King Leopold II, who noted: ‘Monsieur Ensor has done the subject very well; he has not exaggerated, this is exactly how one bathes in Ostend. The sea and bathing do sometimes hold pleasant surprises in store for us.’ (Quoted in: U. Becks-Malorny, James Ensor 1860-1949 - Masks, Death, and the Sea, Taschen, Cologne, 1999, p. 55.)

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