James Ensor (1860 - 1949)

Cover art for Peintre and Graveur, 1899

Demons Teasing Me,  Poster for the James Ensor Exhibition at the Salon des Cent in Paris , 1898

Demons Teasing Me, 1898

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1887

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, detail 1, 1887

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, detail 2, 1887

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, detail 3, 1887

Devils Trashing Angels and Archangels, 1888

The Devils Dzitts and Hihanox Leading Christ to Hell, 1895

Petit Persian Turtures, 1896

The Entry of Christ into Brussels, State 3, 1898

Christ in Hell

Christ Descending Into Hell, 1895

The Strike (Massacre of the Ostend Fisherman) 1888

Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889, 1889/90

Death Chasing the Flock of Mortals, 1896

Hop-Frog's Revenge, colored print, 1898

Hop-Frog's Revenge, 1896

The Love Line, 1924

Monstres Entrelacés Décousus, Entrelardés, 1938

Demons Teasing Me, colored, 1895

Demons Teasing Me, original drawing, 1895

King Pest, 1895

King Pest, original drawing, 1895

Fight of the Dodwn-and-Outs, 1887

Queen Parysatis, 1899

The Ghosts, 1889

Anger (La Colère) from The Deadly Sins (Les Péchés capitaux) colored, 1904

Avarice (L'Avarice) from The Deadly Sins (Les Péchés capitaux) colored, 1904

Sloth (La Paresse) from The Deadly Sins (Les Péchés capitaux) colored, 1902

Gluttony (La Gourmandise) from The Deadly Sins (Les Péchés capitaux) colored, 1904

Lust (La Luxure) from The Deadly Sins (Les Péchés capitaux) colored, 1888

Pride (L'Orgeuil) from The Deadly Sins (Les Péchés capitaux) colored, 1904

Envy (L'Envie) from The Deadly Sins (Les Péchés capitaux) 1904

The Deadly Sins Dominated by Death, 1904

The Deadly Sins dominated by Death, from "The Seven Deadly Sins," colored version 1, 1904

The Deadly Sins dominated by Death, from "The Seven Deadly Sins," colored version 2, 1904

My Aunt Asleep and Dreaming of Monsters, 1888

The Fight of the Down-and-Outs Desir and Rissole, State 2, 1888

The Bad Doctors, 1892

The Bad Doctors, colored, 1895

The Assassination, 1890

Good Judges, 1891

The Good Judges, 1894

The Baths at Ostende, 1889

Red and White Clowns Evolving, 1890

Battle of the Golden Spurs, 1895

Doctrinal Nourishment, 1889

The Gendarmes, 1888

Intrigued Masks, 1930

Perplexed Masks, 1904

Ensor Surrounded By Masks, 1899

The Intrigue, 1890

Masks Confronting Death 1888

Scandalized Masks, 1883

Singular Masks, 1892

Skeletons Fighting For The Body Of A Hanged Man, 1891

Terrible Musicians, 1891

Astonishment of the Mask Wouse, 1889

Pierrot and Skeleton in Yellow Robe, 1893

The Despair of Pierrot, 1892

Comical Repast (Banquet of the Starved) 1917-18

Baptism of Masks, 1925-30

The Skeleton Painter, 1896

Fantastic Ballet, 1918

The Shop Of Grognelet Decoration For The Ballet Range Of Love, 1912

At The Conservatory With The Academy, 1902

The War of Snails, 1911

The Fight of the Angels and the Demons, 1888

Tribulations of Saint Anthony, 1909

The Tribulations of Saint Anthony, 1887

The Temptation of Saint Anthony, 1932

The Infernal Cortege, 1887

Wizards in a Squall, 1888

Carnival Scene, 1913

Composition With Figures, 1946

Scenes from the Life of Christ, 1921

Diables turlupinant un religieux, 1940

The Assassination 1888

Burlesque False Noses

"James Sidney Edouard, Baron Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949) was a Belgian painter and printmaker, an important influence on expressionism and surrealism who lived in Ostend for almost his entire life. He was associated with the artistic group Les XX.

 Ensor's father, James Frederic Ensor, born in Brussels of English parents, was a cultivated man who studied engineering in England and Germany. Ensor's mother, Maria Catherina Haegheman, was Belgian. Ensor himself lacked interest in academic study and left school at the age of fifteen to begin his artistic training with two local painters. From 1877 to 1880, he attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where one of his fellow students was Fernand Khnopff. Ensor first exhibited his work in 1881. From 1880 until 1917, he had his studio in the attic of his parents' house. His travels were very few: three brief trips to France and two to the Netherlands in the 1880s, and a four-day trip to London in 1892.

During the late 19th century much of his work was rejected as scandalous, particularly his painting Christ's Entry Into Brussels in 1889 (1888–89), but his paintings continued to be exhibited, and he gradually won acceptance and acclaim. In 1895 his painting The Lamp Boy (1880) was acquired by the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, and he had his first solo exhibition in Brussels. By 1920 he was the subject of major exhibitions; in 1929 he was named a Baron by King Albert, and was the subject of the Belgian composer Flor Alpaerts's James Ensor Suite; and in 1933 he was awarded the band of the Légion d'honneur. Even in the first decade of the 20th century, however, his production of new works was diminishing, and he increasingly concentrated on music—although he had no musical training, he was a gifted improviser on the harmonium, and spent much time performing for visitors. Against the advice of friends, he remained in Ostend during World War II despite the risk of bombardment. In his old age he was an honored figure among Belgians, and his daily walk made him a familiar sight in Ostend. He died there after a short illness, on 19 November 1949."  - quote source

A detailed examination along with videos showing the restoration process of James Ensor's "The Temptation of Saint Anthony" can be viewed in this online catalogue at the Art Institute of Chicago. 

You'll find a book published in 1922 of Ensor's art at Archive.org.

James Ensor, peintre & graveur, published 1899

Les écrits de James Ensor, 1921

Artworks found at the Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, my own personal scans from various books and additional sources that have been lost to me over the years.

Herbert E. Crowley (1873 – 1939)

Rye, 1911

Five Ghouls, 1911-14

Nightmare

Fantastic Animals Left off the Ark, 1911-14

Slander

The Haunt, 1920's

What is Funny? by Herbert Crowley (Toronto Sunday World), January 24, 1915

"The Wiggle Much" Comic Strip, Number 14 (published by The New York Herald, June 14, 1910)

"The Wiggle Much" Comic Strip, Number 11 (published by The New York Herald, May 29, 1910)

"The Wiggle Much" Comic Strip, Number 16 (not published by The New York Herald) 1910

"The Wiggle Much" Comic Strip, No. 1 (published in The New York Herald, March 20, 1910)


"Herbert E. Crowley (1873 – 1939) was a British artist, set designer, and comic strip cartoonist. He is the author of The Wigglemuch, a symbolic comic strip published by the New York Herald. It ran for a total of 13 installments from March to June 1910.

Born in London in 1873, Crowley grew up to become a painter. Even though he studied singing in Paris and became a trained musician, his drawings and cartoons led him to New York, where he lived for around 15 years. His first work after arriving in the US in 1910 was The Wigglemuch (published by the New York Herald), a comic strip that has become his most famous piece. It was also the only collection of comic strip cartoons that he would ever publish. Between 1910 and 1924, many of his paintings and sketches were exhibited in New York, in both collective and individual exhibitions, including the Armory Show in 1913 and frequent artwork displays on 57th Street. He exhibited with Léon Bakst at the Berlin Photographic Company in New York in 1914, where his work was compared to that of William Blake in the exhibition catalog. The New York Times, in an article about the exhibit, remarked, regarding the comparison that "what resemblances may exist between the two artists is strongest in the spiritual quality of their attitude toward their art and a kind of personal symbolism not very clear to the uninitiated."

He married Neighborhood Playhouse founder Alice Lewisohn in 1924, and the two of them became part of the Carl Jung inner circle in Zurich. Crowley was one of the first set designers for the Neighborhood Playhouse, designing sets for The Kairn of Koridwen in 1917. The New York Times mentioned the wedding, held in London in a small item on an obituaries page, identifying Crowley only as "an English artist." The item went on to mention that "... (Alice) told none of her friends of the possibility that she might be married before she returned, but they were not surprised at the news, for she and Mr. Crowley had been close friends for several years."

In the mid-to-late 1920s Crowley returned to London and spent some time traveling. He went to the Middle East and he frequently visited India. Crowley eventually established himself in Zurich, Switzerland, where he would spend the rest of his life. He died in 1939." - quote source


There is currently a kickstarter titled "The Temple of Silence: Forgotten Worlds of Herbert Crowley" with the goal of creating an oversized archival art book of Crowley's work.   

A tumblr devoted to the works of Crowley can be viewed here.

Artworks found thanks to Josh O'Neil and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art