A unique journey with James Ensor through the history of still life in Belgium in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries

Still life played an important role within the work of Belgian expressionist and symbolist painter James Ensor (1860-1949). The quality and significance of his intriguingly complex still lifes become clear when placed within the broader development of the genre in Belgium between 1830 and 1930.

The book offers an overview of the nineteenth-century Belgian academic tradition of decorative painting, with intriguing work by lesser-known painters such as Jean Robie, Hubert Bellis, Frans Mortelmans, and Henri De Braekeleer, as well as forgotten female artists such as Berthe Art and Alice Ronner. In the early twentieth century, artists such as Louis Thevenet continued to develop the genre of still life in a traditional manner, while innovators such as the late James Ensor, Leon Spilliaert, Marthe Donas, Walter Vaes, and Gustave Van de Woestyne created highly personal interpretations.

This book is published on the first exhibition ever entirely devoted to James Ensor's still lifes at Mu.ZEE (Ostend).

Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Exhibition Schedule:

Mu.ZEE, Ostend, Belgium

(December 16, 2023-April 14, 2024)