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James Ensor Figurative Prints

Belgian, 1860-1949

James Ensor is a Belgian painter and printmaker and an important influence on Expressionism and Surrealism. Ensor's early works, such as Russian Music (1881) and The Drunkards (1883), depict realistic scenes in a somber style, after which his palette subsequently brightened and he favored increasingly bizarre subject matter. Such paintings as The Scandalized Masks (1883) and Skeletons Fighting over a Hanged Man (1891) feature figures in grotesque masks inspired by the ones sold in his mother's gift shop for Ostend's annual Carnival. Subjects such as carnivals, masks, puppetry, skeletons and fantastic allegories are dominant in Ensor's mature work. Ensor dressed skeletons up in his studio and arranged them in colorful, enigmatic tableaux on the canvas and used masks as a theatrical aspect in his still lifes. Attracted by masks' plastic forms, bright colors and potential for psychological impact, he created a format in which he could paint with complete freedom. Ensor was a prolific and accomplished printmaker. He created 133 etchings and drypoints throughout his career, with 86 of them made between 1886 and 1891 during the height of Ensor's most creative period. Ensor himself recognized that the prints were a key part of his artistic legacy, stating in a letter to Albert Croquez in 1934, "Yes, I intend to go on working for a long time yet so that generations to come may hear me. I intend to survive, and I think of the solid copper plate, the unalterable ink, easy reproduction, faithful prints and I adopt etching as a means of expression.”

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Artist: James Ensor
Peste Dessous Peste Dessus Peste Partout!-Original Etching by James Ensor-1900s
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
Etching on zinc plate, realized in 1904 on japan paper. It is signed in plate in small letters at the bottom right. On the lower right margin, it is signed also in pencil. Not dated...
Category

Early 1900s Modern James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Les Masques Scandalisés - Etching by J. Ensor - 1895
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
Hand signed, also signed on plate. Passepartout included : 49 x 34 cm Image Dimensions : 8 x 12 cm Catalogue Deteil n. 99.  This artwork is shipped from Italy. Under existing legisl...
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1890s Post-Impressionist James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Le Roi Peste (The Plague Kings) - Etching by James Ensor - 1895
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
The Plague Kings is an original etching on the Japanese paper, realized by James Ensor in 1895, signed on the plate and dated, unique state, with the second signature on the reverse ...
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1890s Surrealist James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Exterminating Angel
By James Ensor
Located in New York, NY
James Ensor (1860-1949), Exterminating Angel (L'Ange Exterminateur), etching with drypoint, 1889, signed and dated in pencil lower right, also titled and countersigned verso. Referen...
Category

1880s Symbolist James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Drypoint, Etching

Christus bij de bedelaars , 1895, etching, plate-signed, James Ensor
By James Ensor
Located in Sint-Truiden, BE
Taevernier No. 102 - Etching is in very good condition and of very good quality. Although the plate was deleted in the presence of a bailiff in 1950 or 1951, this print was made afte...
Category

Late 19th Century James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Handmade Paper

Assassinat - Etching by James Ensor - 1888
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
Assassinat is an original etching on the Japanese paper, realized by James Ensor in 1888, signed on the plate and dated, with the second signature on the reverse. In good conditions...
Category

1880s Surrealist James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

La Gourmandise - Etching by James Ensor - 1904
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
Gluttony (La Gourmandise) is an original etching on the Japanese paper, realized by James Ensor in 1904, signed and dated with the second signature and title on the reverse, 2nd stat...
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Early 1900s Surrealist James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Capture of a strange town - Etching by James Ensor - 1888
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
Etching on cream paper, copper plate, 4th final state of four. Titled on lower left, hand signed in pencil and dated on lower right by the artist. A signature on plate, hard to read,...
Category

1880s Modern James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

La Mare aux Peupliers - Original Etching by James Ensor - 1889
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
Original etching realized by James Ensor in 1889. Hand signed and dated. Good conditions, small stain lower right. Image Dimensions : 15 x 23 cm References: Delteil, Taevernier 74.
Category

1880s Modern James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

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De trace de pas de trace de…
By Roberto Matta
Located in Fairlawn, OH
De trace de pas de trace de… Color etching with aquatint, 1966 From: Monsour and Matta, Les Damnations, 1966 (11 plates, this one of 7 hors text images) Edition: 85 portfolios in the...
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'Fantasia Americana, 1880' — Mid-Century American Surrealism
By Lawrence Kupferman
Located in Myrtle Beach, SC
Lawrence Kupferman, 'Fantasia Americana – 1880', drypoint etching with sandground, 1943. Signed, titled, and annotated 'Series A, 1971 2/6' in pencil. A superb, richly-inked impression, on heavy, cream wove paper, with full margins (2 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches); the paper slightly lightened within the original mat opening, otherwise in excellent condition. One of only 6 impressions printed in 1971, with the added sandground grey background tint. Archivally matted to museum standards, unframed. Image size 11 13/16 x 14 3/4 inches; sheet size 18 x 20 1/4 inches. Collections: National Gallery of Art, Zimmerli Art Museum (Rutgers University). ABOUT THE ARTIST Lawrence Kupferman (1909 - 1982) was born in the Dorchester neighborhood of Boston and grew up in a working-class family. He attended the Boston Latin School and participated in the high school art program at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In the late 1920s, he studied drawing under Philip Leslie Hale at the Museum School—an experience he called 'stultifying and repressive'. In 1932 he transferred to the Massachusetts College of Art, where he first met his wife, the artist Ruth Cobb. He returned briefly to the Museum School in 1946 to study with the influential expressionist German-American painter Karl Zerbe. Kupferman held various jobs while pursuing his artistic career, including two years as a security guard at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. During the 1930s he worked as a drypoint etcher for the Federal Art Project, creating architectural drawings in a formally realistic style—these works are held in the collections of the Fogg Museum and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. In the 1940s he began incorporating more expressionistic forms into his paintings as he became progressively more concerned with abstraction. In 1946 he began spending summers in Provincetown, Massachusetts, where he met and was influenced by Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Jackson Pollock, and other abstract painters. At about the same time he began exhibiting his work at the Boris Mirski Gallery in Boston. In 1948, Kupferman was at the center of a controversy involving hundreds of Boston-area artists. In February of that year, the Boston Institute of Modern Art issued a manifesto titled 'Modern Art and the American Public' decrying 'the excesses of modern art,' and announced that it was changing its name to the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA). The poorly conceived statement, intended to distinguish Boston's art scene from that of New York, was widely perceived as an attack on modernism. In protest, Boston artists such as Karl Zerbe, Jack Levine, and David Aronson formed the 'Modern Artists Group' and organized a mass meeting. On March 21, 300 artists, students, and other supporters met at the Old South Meeting House and demanded that the ICA retract its statement. Kupferman chaired the meeting and read this statement to the press: “The recent manifesto of the Institute is a fatuous declaration which misinforms and misleads the public concerning the integrity and intention of the modern artist. By arrogating to itself the privilege of telling the artists what art should be, the Institute runs counter to the original purposes of this organization whose function was to encourage and to assimilate contemporary innovation.” The other speakers were Karl Knaths...
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By David Bumbeck
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By John Taylor Arms
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Previously Available Items
The Deadly Sins - Original Etching by James Ensor - 1904
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
Deadly Sins is an original etching and drypoint on the Japanese paper, realized by James Ensor in 1904, signed, dated and titled: "Les Péchés capitaux dominés par la Mort", Deadly ...
Category

Early 1900s Surrealist James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

L'Adoration des Bergères - Original Etching by James Ensor - 1888
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
Hand Signed and dated. Signed also on plate. Passepartout included. Very good conditions. Catalogue Delteil n. 58. James Ensor (Belgium, 1860-1949), a forerunner of 20th-century Ex...
Category

1890s Modern James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

BATTLE OF THE DOWN & OUTS
By James Ensor
Located in Santa Monica, CA
JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949) LE COMBAT DES POUILLEUX DESIR ET RISSOLE aka - BATTLE OF THE DOWN AND OUTS 1888 (D, C, T, E, 19 ii/ii) Etching and drypoint, signed and countersigned on verso. 9 3/8 x11 3/8”. Very good impression with plate tone. On the usual simili japan paper. Sheet 14 ½” x 19. Nice burr in the lower right. There is a drawing of a similar scene with the second title. Very good large scale Ensor. A few handling creases in the image. Even tone to the sheet unlike photos Excerpt from 2003 C. G. Boerner catalog written by Eric Gillis and Patrick Florizoone: "This sort of drunken bar scene was quite popular in 17th century Flemish painting. The scene is in fact watched over by the figure of Jan Steen, the amount 17th century Flemish painter, seen standing in the right window. The plate refers to Steen's painting titled Interior of an Inn with Card Players Fighting (1664, Alte Pinakothek, Munich) as well as to the burlesque theatre that Ensor knew in Brussels. The print is similar to Ensor's original drawing in which playing cards and a chair are shown on the ground. In any case, aggressive behavior in his protagonists is common to the artist's work around 1890." Belgian Symbolism...
Category

1880s Symbolist James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

The Cathedral: Second Plate
By James Ensor
Located in New York, NY
James Ensor (1860-1949), The Cathedral: Second Plate, etching, 1896, signed and dated “1886” in pencil, counter-signed verso, with margins, in very good condition. Reference: Delteil...
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1890s Impressionist James Ensor Figurative Prints

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Frise, the Swedish botanist - Original Etching y James Ensor - 1886
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
Orginal etching on zinc plate, signed and dated on plate on verso. Second state of two(II/II). Very fine impression, printed in black ink with plate tone. Very good conditions, with ...
Category

1880s Modern James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Les Péchés Capitaux dominés par la Mort
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
Signed on plate. Very good conditions. Image Dimensions: 9 x 13.5 cm This artwork is shipped from Italy. Under existing legislation, any artwork in Italy created over 70 years ago b...
Category

1880s Post-Impressionist James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

Lisière du Petit Bois, Ostende - Etching by James Ensor
By James Ensor
Located in Roma, IT
Hand signed and dated. Signed also on plate. Copy on Japan paper. Superb and Fresh impression in perfect conditions. Bibliography: Cat. Tavernier n.27 III. Cat. Delteil n. 27 Cat. G...
Category

1880s Post-Impressionist James Ensor Figurative Prints

Materials

Etching

James Ensor figurative prints for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic James Ensor figurative prints available for sale on 1stDibs. You can also browse by medium to find art by James Ensor in etching, drypoint, engraving and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 19th century and is mostly associated with the Surrealist style. Not every interior allows for large James Ensor figurative prints, so small editions measuring 5 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Paul Delvaux, René Magritte, and Maurice Pasternak. James Ensor figurative prints prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,782 and tops out at $13,369, while the average work can sell for $6,708.
Questions About James Ensor Figurative Prints
  • 1stDibs ExpertApril 5, 2022
    To show depth in his work, James Ensor would use linear perspective to set the scene for the observer. See the magic for yourself by shopping a selection of James Ensor’s pieces from some of the world’s top art dealers on 1stDibs.

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