After my today’s spontaneous escape from hot (figuratively and literally) Brussels to Ostend, I totally understand why the Belgian legendary painter and a good citizen of his native city, where he was born in 1860, kept coming back and died in 1948, James Ensor never exchange this colorful hotspot for other cities in the world! Even if he could!
The last time I was in this city was about 15 years ago and it changed drastically since then! I believe for good, but I still miss many old buildings and ancient exter/interiors everywhere in the old downtown! They were very present then, but now compensated by a huge amount of new buildings, cafés and new businesses! The local Marina area still keeps its charm and everyone could buy grey crevettes at each and every corner of it, as it used to be during James Endor’s life, hence many of the paintings, where he painted the see, the sky, the sunrise and the area near the old harbor, where the newly refurbished Ostend Station is located!
Ensorhuis © photo Yelena van Kharitonova
The beach is beautiful as ever and one has enough space to take a deep breath, while watching the ships far on the horizon! Giant installations in forms of smashed red metal cubes welcome visitors and locals alike! This is the hommage to the Casino (which is the sister casino with the famous Monaco’s one! Flabbergasting panoramic views were a part of Endor’s everyday’s reality, hence my high-lights tour of the city, I took before entering the former House and the present Museum of Baron Ensor, the title he didn’t inherit, but deserved because of his life’s achievements as the artist, but also as the public figure!
Ensorhuis © photo Yelena van Kharitonova
After knowing this all, you are ready to enter both buildings and dive into the atmosphere and the world of James Ensor, whom we still try to understand! More precisely what was on his mind, when he was painting, not only the nature, but all those masked personages! I learned today that his mother had a shop downstairs in the house they lived, which was specialized on “curiosity toys”! One can still see the vitrine of that shop! Almost all the objects look very scary and surreal! Fear also was consorting me during my visit to the house, where on the second and the third floors there as a wonderful section of Endor’s life: a chronological order of it with many highlights, milestones and important moments! It is “spiced-up” with his world famous paintings and objects, unexpectedly placed everywhere! Fresh flowers are a kind reminder that the past lives here and now!
James Ensor loved the carnaval, shamelessly and colorfully panted it in many of his works! As well as the masks and the masquerades! The personages looks not surreal, but very real, projecting the beauty, but also the beast and the uglinesses of human nature! Also the society, which was influenced by the rules and laws of Kingdom of Belgium of the time!
Ensorhuis © photo Yelena van Kharitonova
When James Ensor was 17, he went to study in Brussels, was disappointed by the educational system, the city and turned back to his beloved Ostend! He would be visiting Brussels and even had a solo-exhibition there, but never wanted to live in this city! He always had a chance to go to England, because of his mother’s origin, but also never used this opportunity to leave the city! Even when he offered by the Belgian King the status of the Baron ( He didn’t accept it immediately), he gave up his British passport and never regretted! Even if it was the time when Paris was calling! He loyalty stayed and left his hart In Ostend, which remembers him and dedicated many places of its to him!
I was pleased to visit the Museum of James Ensor, where until the 7th of September you can enjoy an immersive exposition and even have a “remembrance” tour in the city! Take this chance and make a choice to do so! You might feel the same as I felt today, lusting to get in touch with the inside world of James Ensor and trying to understand what in the brain of this genius was when he was touching the brushes and the pallets then!
