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Lot Essay
Tout au long de sa vie, James Ensor aimera s’entourer de sculptures, masques, coquillages et autres bibelots qui peupleront sa maison et son atelier. Dans son univers fantasque, les coquillages occupent une place toute particulière. En efet, les parents et les grands-parents maternels d’Ensor étaient marchands de coquillages à Ostende. Ceux-ci le fascineront dès son plus jeune âge et deviendront rapidement source d’inspiration. Il écrit: «Ma mère, flle de marchands de coquillages d’Ostende, continua le commerce de ses parents et j’ai passé mon enfance dans la boutique paternelle entouré de curiosités de la mer et des splendeurs des coquilles nacrées aux milles reflets irisés et des squelettes bizarres, des monstres et des plantes marines. Ce voisinage magnifque, les couleurs, cette opulence de reflets et de rayons contribuèrent certes, à faire de moi un peintre amant de la couleur et sensible aux jeux éblouissants de la lumière» (cité in X. Tricot, op. cit., p. 13).
Notre oeuvre, peinte en 1905, mais antidatée par l’artiste 1895, est la seconde version d’une composition réalisée dix ans plus tôt (Collection du Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio). Les diférentes variétés de coquillages, représentées ici avec une attention particulière aux formes, couleurs et textures, s’offrent à nous comme des petits joyaux sortis de la mer.
Throughout his life, James Ensor loved to surround himself with sculptures, masks, shells and other decorative objects both in his house and in his workshop. In his fantasy world, shells held a very special place. Indeed his parents and his grandparents on his mother’s side had been shell merchants in Ostende. Shells therefore fascinated him from early on and soon became a source of inspiration. He wrote: “My mother, the daughter of shell merchants in Ostende continued her parents’ trade and I spent my childhood in the shop surrounded by sea curiosities – splendid pearly shells with thousand iridescent reflections, bizarre skeletons, monsters and sea plants. This magnifcent environment, the colours, the opulent refections and light beams contributed to making me a painter in love with colour and sensitive to the magnifcent plays of light” (cited in X. Tricot, op. cit., p. 13).
The work here, painted in 1905, is the second version of a composition executed ten years before (Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio). The varieties of shells rendered with great attention to forms, colours and textures, are as many small jewels brought up from the depths of the sea.
Notre oeuvre, peinte en 1905, mais antidatée par l’artiste 1895, est la seconde version d’une composition réalisée dix ans plus tôt (Collection du Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio). Les diférentes variétés de coquillages, représentées ici avec une attention particulière aux formes, couleurs et textures, s’offrent à nous comme des petits joyaux sortis de la mer.
Throughout his life, James Ensor loved to surround himself with sculptures, masks, shells and other decorative objects both in his house and in his workshop. In his fantasy world, shells held a very special place. Indeed his parents and his grandparents on his mother’s side had been shell merchants in Ostende. Shells therefore fascinated him from early on and soon became a source of inspiration. He wrote: “My mother, the daughter of shell merchants in Ostende continued her parents’ trade and I spent my childhood in the shop surrounded by sea curiosities – splendid pearly shells with thousand iridescent reflections, bizarre skeletons, monsters and sea plants. This magnifcent environment, the colours, the opulent refections and light beams contributed to making me a painter in love with colour and sensitive to the magnifcent plays of light” (cited in X. Tricot, op. cit., p. 13).
The work here, painted in 1905, is the second version of a composition executed ten years before (Columbus Museum of Art, Ohio). The varieties of shells rendered with great attention to forms, colours and textures, are as many small jewels brought up from the depths of the sea.