James Ensor’s Sparkling Scenes from the Life of Christ, 1921

“Christ is a very great figure. People have thought a great deal about this figure. The Christ is an inescapable symbol.”

– James Ensor

Scènes de la vie du Christ (Scenes from the Life of Christ) is a portfolio of 32 coloured pencil drawing by the Belgian artist James Ensor (13 April 1860 – 19 November 1949). Made between 1911 and 1913, they were published in 1921. The work illustrates key moments of Christ’s life, from the Annunciation to the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Known for contrasting religious themes with carnival humour and satire, Ensor’s series features grotesque figures, masks and distorted perspectives alongside Biblical events. In one image, Christ before His Judges, Ensor portrays himself as Jesus confronted with a dozen Belgian art critics who have gathered before him.

In 1929, the 32 drawings were made into lithographs and published as an album by Galerie Georges Giroux (1912 – 1960), one of the first dealerships dedicated to modern art in Brussels.

These masterful images are available as high-quality prints in our shop.

 

In ‘Le Christ livré aux critiques’, (above), Ensor portrayed himself as Jesus with his critics, from left to right: Hellens, Verhaeren, Dumont Wilden, Deleu: middle section: Picard, Gilkin, Van Zijpe; below: Fetis, Théo Hanon, Maus, Destrée; on the right side: James Ensor as Christ.

 

Ensor’s Jesus

In an interview with the painter of brutal demons and passions in September 1948, British art historian J. P. Hodin turned to the matter of Ensor’s brilliant panting Christ’s Entry into Brussels (1889):

“But why did you paint Christ in your painting of the entry into Brussels? And why Brussels?”

“I chose Brussels, but it might as well have been another place. And Christ…” Ensor said, drawling.

Auguste [Ensor’s servant] broke in: “The Master is a bad Catholic but a great revolutionary.”

“You should write a book about it,” I retorted.

“I am waiting until others have made the mistakes.”

It was impossible to get the better of that fellow!

“Christ,” Ensor repeated, “is a very great figure. The Christ is an inescapable figure symbol.”

In 1885 Ensor began work on a series of drawings and an oil paintings of Jesus, which would be exhibited for the first time, under the title The Aureoles of Christ or the Sensitivities of Light, at the annual Salon of Les XX in Brussels in 1887. Each work presents a point in Jesus’ life. (Les XX were group of twenty, mostly Belgian, artists organising art exhibitions in Brussels, between 1884 and 1893.):

The Joyful: The Adoration of the Shepherds
The Bright and Radiant: The Entry into Jerusalem
The Raw: Jesus Presented to the People
The Sad and Broken: Satan and the Fantastic Legions Tormenting the Crucified
The Quiet and Serene: The Descent from the Cross
The Intense: Christ Ascending to Heaven

You can see more of Ensor’s work in the shop, including his mesmerising Seven Deadly Sins.

 

These masterful images are available as high-quality prints in our shop.