![]() Ostend went from being a garrison town, to a petit Bruxelles. James Ensor, Christ's Entry Into Brusselsl, 1888Īs a young boy James saw how the city canals were filled in and the city walls were demolished. It is just like Ensor saw Ostend transforming. Ostend! How everything evaporates and changes. ‘There, in that apartment building with the tinted windows, he painted his Christ's Entry Into Brussels.’ On the corner of the Vlaanderenstraat and the Van Iseghemlaan he pointed up. Or rather, the places where Ensor had lived and worked, because all but one of those houses have disappeared. We walked with Tricot through the Langestraat, Van Iseghemlaan, the Adolf Buylstraat and the Vlaanderenstraat, and he pointed to houses. As long as new and fake works keep appearing, that work won’t be finished. ![]() ![]() His life’s work is the James Ensor Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings. Every time I think of James Ensor.Īnd even in the many auction houses and flea markets of Ostend I recognise the remnants of bourgeois interiors, dark and perishable, like the hybrid compositions of Ensor’s still life paintings.Ī few times we accompanied Xavier Tricot, Ostend’s Ensor-expert. You also see how small people are, parading around and taking their daily walk along the dyke. Up there, all is ephemeral clouds, mists and light. Up there, there is more sky than houses, the closeness of the sea is palpable. City scenes from above, just like the young Ensor who enjoyed painting from his attic studio. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |