The Lady in Distress

1860–1949 · Workplace

Ostend

1877–1880

Brussels friends and the Rousseau household

At the Academy Ensor befriended Willy Finch, Fernand Khnopff and Théo Hannon, and through Hannon met Ernest Rousseau, a professor at the Free University of Brussels, whose house drew the Brussels avant-garde to debate socialist and anarchist ideas. The lady of the house, Mariette Rousseau, became one of the few women close to him, though she kept him at a certain distance.

1880

A studio in the attic of his parents' house

Disappointed by the dry teaching, Ensor left the Brussels Academy — 'an establishment for the half-blind' — and returned to Ostend, where until 1917 he worked in the attic of his parents' house above his mother's souvenir shop. There he created all his key paintings of the 19th century — even the huge “Christ's Entry into Brussels”, which, under the low ceiling, he painted now kneeling, now standing on a chair.

1881

First exhibition, with La Chrysalide

Ensor first showed his work in public, with the Belgian avant-garde group La Chrysalide in Brussels.

1882

The Paris Salon: 'rubbish'

Ensor's works were shown at the Paris Salon with the Brussels association L'Essor, but one critic called his pictures 'rubbish'.

1882

The Salon rejects “The Oyster Eater”

“The Oyster Eater”, a portrait of the artist's sister, was rejected by the Antwerp Salon, and a year later by L'Essor, because of its unconventional composition. These setbacks led Ensor to join Les XX, founded in 1883 with Khnopff, Finch and Théo van Rysselberghe among its members.