James Ensor (1860-1949)

Les infâmes vivisecteurs - The vile vivisectors

Details

James Ensor (1860-1949)
Les infâmes vivisecteurs - The vile vivisectors
inscribed upper right Infâmes Vivisecteurs/Je vous crache tout/mon mépris à la face/James Ensor, signed on the reverse J Ensor
oil on canvas
62 x 80.5 cm
Executed circa 1930

Provenance

S. Salz, Paris/New York
World House Galleries, New York
C. Givaudan, Geneva
E. Janss, Thousand Oaks, California

Literature

Liber Veritatis, f.4r
Xavier Tricot, Ensoriana, Ostend 1985, p. 36, no. 38b
Xavier Tricot, James Ensor Catalogue Raisonnée of the paintings 1902-1941, Volume II, Antwerp 1992, no. 589 (ill.)

Exhibited

Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Rétrospective James Ensor, 19 January - 17 February 1929, cat.no. 315
New York, Feigl Gallery, 10 oil-paintings exhibited for the first time in the United States: James Ensor, 11-28 February 1953, cat.no. 4
New York, World House Galleries, World House Annual, 10 December 1957 - 25 January 1958
New York, World House Galleries, Modern German Art, 29 October - 10 December 1958, cat.no. 14
New York, World House Galleries, Ensor 1860-1949, 19 September - 22 October 1960, cat.no. 11
Zrich, Kunsthaus, James Ensor, 20 May - 31 July 1983, cat.no. 116
Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, James Ensor, 20 August - 30 October 1983, cat.no. 123
California, Newport Harbor Art Museum, Flemish Expressions Representational in the twentieth century, 12 December 1986 - 22 February 1987, no. 37 (ill.)
Florida, Museum of Art Fort Lauderdale, Flemish Expressions Representational painting in the twentieth century, 12 March - 25 May 1987, no. 37 (ill.)

Sale room notice

Please note that this lot should have an exclamation mark and is therefore subject to import charges (buyers premium and VAT is 25.

Lot Essay

However mysterious Ensor's fantasies might seem, these creations are not without their foundations in reality. Together with his friend Ernst Rousseau, whom he met through the painter Theo Hannon, Ensor organised regular masquerades which he photographed and then used as an inspiration for his paintings.

Five years before this painting Ensor made a very similar version of Les Infâmes Vivisecteurs (See X. Tricot, 1992, no. 517)

See colour illustration

More from Belgium Art sale

View All