The Frightful Musicians

Belgian painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. No single label adequately describes the visionary work produced by Ensor between 1880 and 1900, his most productive period. His pictures from that time have both Symbolism and Realism aspects, and in spite of his dismissal of the Impressionists as “superficial daubers”, he was profoundly concerned with the effects of light. His imagery and technical procedures anticipated the coloristic brilliance and violent impact of Fauvism and German Expressionism and the psychological fantasies of Surrealism.

Ensor’s most memorable and influential work was almost exclusively produced before 1900, but he was largely unrecognized before the 1920s in his own country.