Phantoms, skulls, skeletons, and other macabre figures characterize the oeuvre of James Ensor (1860–1949).

His works are bizarre, ironic, occasionally belligerent and provocative, and always buoyed by a profound sense of humor. The unusual motifs reveal what is absurd and grotesque about everyday life. Ensor’s interests were wide-ranging; he was as enthusiastic about Rembrandt’s prints as he was about the Belgian carnival festival and Japanese masks. Early twentieth-century artists such as Alfred Kubin, Paul Klee, and the German Expressionists Emil Nolde and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner were inspired by his creative power and radical rejection of traditional European ideals of beauty.

This volume presents nearly sixty paintings and includes an equal number of drawings being published for the first time.