L'étonnement du masque Wouse (Astonishment of the Mask Wouse), 1889

            James Ensor
Oil on canvas

Ensor's enigmatic, deeply personal form of painting was defiantly anti-naturalistic.  A masked woman (probably the 'Wouse' of this picture's title, a heartless and unscrupulous shrew) gestures toward a heap of bodiless masquerade figures with musical instruments.  Peculiar figures - two of them racist stereotypes of a Black man (far left) and an indigenous American (far right) - suggest an atmosphere of mockery.  Despite Ensor's unique vision, his palette and handling of paint expressed his deep admiration for such Flemish masters as Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640).*

From the exhibition

After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art
(March – August 2023)

Explore a period of great upheaval when artists broke with established tradition and laid the foundations for the art of the 20th and the 21st centuries.
The decades between 1880 and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 were a complex, vibrant period of artistic questioning, searching, risk-taking and innovation.
The exhibition celebrates the achievements of three giants of the era: Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin and follows the influences they had on younger generations of French artists, on their peers and on wider circles of artists across Europe in Barcelona, Berlin, Brussels and Vienna.
With nearly a hundred works by artists ranging from Klimt and Munch, Matisse and Picasso to Mondrian and Kandinsky complemented by a selection of sculpture by artists including Rodin and Camille Claudel, the exhibition follows the creation of a new, modern art, free of convention, taking in Expressionism, Cubism and Abstraction.
[*National Gallery]

Taken in the National Gallery

Some rights reserved

Taken on: April 30, 2023

Tags:

30.04.23

London

National Gallery

After Impressionism: Inventing Modern Art

After Impressionism

Inventing Modern Art

First World War

Paul Cézanne

Vincent van Gogh

Paul Gauguin

Klimt

Munch

Matisse

Picasso

Mondrian

Kandinsky

Rodin

Camille Claudel

Expressionism

Cubism

Abstraction

L'étonnement du masque Wouse

Astonishment of the Mask Wouse

James Ensor

Oil

canvas

masked woman

Wouse

shrew

masquerade figures

stereotypes

Peter Paul Rubens « less

Sets appears in: • City of Westminster • National Gallery more » • Artworks • Galleries & Museums « less

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