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Artist or Maker: James Ensor (1860-1949)
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Provenance: C. Ganesco, Brussels.
Marcel Mabille, Rhode-St-Genèse.
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 1993.
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Exhibited: Charleroi, Cercle Artistique, XXIII e Salon annuel des Beaux-Arts, Rétrospective Ensor, March 1949.
Venice, XXV Biennale di Venezia, June - October 1950, no. 33.
Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Rétrospective James Ensor, June - August 1951, no. 88.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, James Ensor, September - October 1952, no. 42; this exhibition later travelled to Cleveland, Museum of Art, November - December 1951, St.Louis, City Art Museum, December 1952 - January 1952 and Boston, Institute of Modern Art, February - March 1952.
Paris, Musée national d'Art moderne, Hommage à Ensor, February - April 1954, no. 50.
London, Marlborough Fine Art, James Ensor 1860-1949 Retrospective Centenary Exhibition, April - May 1960, no. 47.
Ostende, Stedeljik Museum voor Schone Kunsten, James Ensor, July - August 1960, no. 56.
Otterlo, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Ensor 1860-1949, June - July 1961, no. 42; this exhibition later travelled to Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, August - September 1961.
Basel, Kunsthalle, James Ensor, June - August 1963, no. 56; this exhibition later travelled to Münster, Landesmuseum, August - September 1963.
Zurich, Kunsthaus, James Ensor, May - July 1983, no. 72; this exhibition later travelled to Antwerp, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, August - October 1983.
Paris, Musée du Petit Palais, James Ensor, April - July 1990, no. 164.
London, Royal Academy, Ensor to Permeke: nine Flemish painters 1880 - 1950, September - November 1971, no. 109.
Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Ensor, September 1999 - February 2000, no. 96 (illustrated p. 159).
Frankfurt, Schirn-Kunsthalle, James Ensor, December 2005 - March 2006 (illustrated p. 133).
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Literature: E. Verhaeren, James Ensor, Brussels, 1908, p. 116 (titled Fruits).
G. Le Roy, James Ensor, Brussels, 1922, p. 182 (titled Fruits).
P. Haesaerts, James Ensor, Brussels, 1957, no. 318 (illustrated p. 282; dated '1895').
R. Delevoy, Ensor, Anvers, 1981, no. 252 (illustrated p. 318).
J. Janssens, James Ensor, 1990 (illustrated p. 61).
X. Tricot, James Ensor. Catalogue raisonné of the paintings, Brussels, 1992, vol. 1, no. 300, p. 295 (illustrated p. 354).
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Notes: THE PROPERTY OF A PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTOR
Like Ensor's paintings of masks, carnivals and skeletons, his mature still-life paintings of the1890s also magically convey a sense of a bizarre otherworldy reality. Translating the objects of daily life into a strange narrative landscape of familiar but somehow also peculiar form, Ensor's still-lifes seem to depict life as an absurd compendium of objects. Les Pêches is one of the most successful and evocative of these exquisite works. Sharply observed and sumptuous in its colourful detail, it is bathed in a bright translucent light and depicted in such a way that this procession of three peaches, passion fruit and a rose takes on something of the quality of a carnival.
Laid out in a line resting on a stone slab, the contrast between the warm pink colouring of each of these five objects and the cold blue tones of the stone slab and the background also establishes a certain whimsical eroticism. Both fruit and flowers are perennial symbols of love and sex and Ensor seems to have taken particular delight in rendering the flesh-coloured texture of each with tender accuracy. Heightening the realist techniques he had learned from Courbet's work and juxtaposing it against a shimmering almost transluscent light that bestows the work with a mysterious sense of artifice, the fleshy appearance of these simple objects is here transfigured into a bizarre and almost mystical parade.
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