Explore Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889

Read About This Painting by James Ensor

James Ensor addressed religion, politics, and art in this scene of Christ entering contemporary Brussels in a Mardi Gras parade. Ensor used palette knives, spatulas, and both ends of his brush to paint patches of colors with expressive freedom. He made several drawings to prepare for the painting.

In this painting, Ensor portrays society as a mob—a crude, ugly, chaotic, dehumanized sea of masks, frauds, clowns, and caricatures—threatening to trample the viewer. Public, historical, and allegorical figures along with the artist’s family and friends make up the crowd. The haloed Christ at the center of the commotion is in part a self-portrait: mostly ignored, a precarious, isolated visionary amidst the herdlike masses of modern society.

When Ensor painted the work, Brussels was being transformed from a sleepy town to a modern city under the rule of Leopold II, whose lucrative slave labor in the Congo Free State helped to finance new architecture and infrastructure. Between 1860 and 1890, the economy was shifting from agriculture to industry, Belgian cities faced overcrowding, and the poor of Brussels were pushed into the western edges of the city. Ensor’s Christ functioned as a political spokesman for the poor and oppressed—a humble leader of the true religion, in opposition to the atheist social reformer Emile Littré, shown in a bishop’s costume holding a drum major’s baton as he leads on the eager, mindless crowd.

After rejection by Les XX (The Twenty), the artists’ association Ensor had helped to form, the painting was not exhibited publicly until 1929, over 40 years later. Ensor displayed this painting prominently in his home and studio throughout his life. With its aggressive, painterly style and merging of the public with the deeply personal, the massive canvas was a forerunner of twentieth-century Expressionism.

Questions

Write or discuss your responses.

• What is happening in this scene? Identify the types of people in the foreground of the painting.
• Identify the types of people in the middle ground of the painting. How do you know who they are?
• What do you notice about the various people, their expressions and body language? What are they doing? What are they ignoring?
• Identify examples of characters that are being criticized or made fun of in this painting. How can you tell?

A representation in either literature or visual art that includes a ridiculous distortion or exaggeration of body parts or physical characteristics to create a comic or gross imitation.

A style of art inspired by an artist’s subjective feelings rather than objective or realistic depictions based on observation. Expressionism as a movement is mainly associated with early-twentieth-century German artists interested in exploring the spiritual and emotional aspects of human existence.

The part of the composition that appears closest to the viewer, just behind the picture plane. According to the rules of perspective, figures and objects appear larger and more detailed in the foreground than in the middle and background.

The part of a composition that is between the foreground and background.

A portrait of oneself, often an artist, done by oneself as a painting, drawing, sculpture, or other medium.