News

New Ensor acquisition completes print series at Musea Brugge collection

Musea Brugge has acquired a work by James Ensor (1860-1949) from Van de Wiele Auctions. The final puzzle piece of Ensor's Seven Deadly Sins.

Eighth print from the series

Musea Brugge already owned the seven individual prints from the album. But until now, the eighth print from the series was missing: the frontispiece depicting the personifications of sin under the black wings of a skull.

James Ensor, The deadly sins ruled by death, 1904, collection Musea Brugge, hand-coloured etching, 85 x 132 mm - public domain

On the left is a soldier symbolising pride. Next to him we see greed with a well-stocked purse. The next pair shows a raging woman (wrath) and a horny man (lust). Gluttony is symbolised by a man devouring a sausage. Beside him, envy threatens with a knife, whose blade is smeared with blood. On the far right, we recognise sloth dressed in a nightgown, over which a snail crawls.

Frontispiece

The copper etching acted as the 'frontispiece', the cover page of the album Les Péchés capitaux: a satirical album of eight etchings in which Ensor updates a traditional theme of Christian morality. The album, published in 1904, was provided with a preface by his close friend Eugène Demolder, of whom an intriguing portrait by Ensor's hand hangs in the Groeningemuseum.

Ensor in Musea Brugge collection

With this last missing etching from the series of the seven deadly sins, Musea Brugge owns a total of twenty hand-coloured prints. Together with the painting Icône. Portrait of Eugène Demolder (1893), they offer a representative sample of the various themes Ensor used in his work.