L'Entree du Christ a Bruxelles [The Entry of Christ into Brussels]
About this artwork
This etching is based on Ensor’s vast 1888 painting of the same subject. It shows the annual carnival in Brussels where a tiny figure of Christ on a donkey is swamped by a bulging mass of protestors with banners, carnival masks, and wearing contemporary dress. It is a modern reworking of the story of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. Ensor was an atheist, but he used Christian motifs to express his contempt for what he saw as an increasingly inhumane world of political and social injustice. A number of the figures in the crowd are recognisable and include some of his friends and members of his family. The figure of Christ is a partial self-portrait; Ensor identified with Jesus as a victim of mockery, and a symbol of the poor and oppressed.
Updated before 2020
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artist:James Ensor (1860 - 1949) Belgian
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title:L'Entree du Christ a Bruxelles [The Entry of Christ into Brussels]
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date created:1896
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materials:Etching on paper
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measurements:Image size: 24.80 x 35.60 cm; paper size: 35.00 x 47.20 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Purchased 1981
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accession number:GMA 2285
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gallery:
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subject:
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glossary:
James Ensor
James Ensor
Belgian artist James Ensor lived most of his life in Ostend, where he was born in 1860. From 1877 to 1880 he studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. Initially a portrait painter, Ensor soon established an avant-garde group of artists called ‘Les XX’ (the Twenty). They rejected...