Man of Sorrows

Against a red background surrounded by a white haze, a mask looks at us angrily. The mouth wide open. The forehead furrowed. It has long red hair, a moustache and a beard. Atop its head is a crown of thorns. Over its face flows blood, dripping from the beard. The character wears a very simple white garment with a green neckline.

Following Orthodox icons, a portrait of the suffering Christ with all traces of torture became popular during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Sometimes traces of the crucifixion are also visible so that the Man of Sorrows becomes a general image of Christ's excessive suffering instead of the representation of specific moment in his life. In the Old Testament (Isaiah 53), a prophetic description of a Messiah is given: He was despised, the most unworthy among men, a man of sorrows (...).¹

While studying at the academy in Brussels, Ensor depicted religious characters and stories. From 1886, in drawings such as Visions: The Aureoles of Christ or The Sensibilities of Light, etchings, paintings and lithographs (The Scenes from the Life of Christ of 1921), he would very often depict Christ. Three times, in the drawing The Calvary (1888? Private Collection), in Ecce homo (1891 Private Collection long-term loan to KMSKA), in The Mockery of Christ (1921), and in L’âme de douleur (1915, Private collection) he explicitly identified himself with the mocked and suffering Christ. In an 1898 verse in honour of his friend, Théo Hannon wrote: (il) Fit même, à son image, un tas de Christ exsangues … (He even made, after his own image, a bunch of bloodless Christs.)² But it is certainly not the case that every depiction of Christ refers to Ensor's portrayal of his own (alleged) misunderstanding.³

The face of the Man of Sorrows is clearly based on a Japanese devil mask from the Nô theatre. Ensor owned at least one postcard with a black-and-white image of such a Japanese devil mask. He transformed this evil face into the furious grimace of the suffering Christ. The material-technical examination, particularly the X-ray image, shows how Ensor, after drawing the devil mask in black chalk on the white ground of the panel, apparently depicted a close up of Christ on the cross with the inscription INRI above his head. But he decided to paint over fragments of the cross and the inscription completely. The white blur around Christ's head is perhaps a remnant of an attempt to depict the Vera Eikoon. St Veronica or Berenice, according to Christian tradition, was a woman who offered Christ a cloth to wipe the sweat and blood from his face while carrying his cross, on the way to Golgotha. On this cloth (Veronica's ‘cloth’), a miracle is said to have depicted Jesus' face. The legend became a popular iconographic motif in the course of the 15th century. (The drawing L'âme de douleur shows, in an archaic style, the face of the 50-year-old Ensor on a veil, surrounded by several women.) Eventually, The Man of Sorrows was conceived as a portrait bust.

During various periods in his career, Ensor revealed a marked preference for using small, pre-prepared panels for his paintings and drawings. In 1886, he painted the Descent from the Cross in grisaille on a 60 cm x 47 cm panel. This was one of six images in his Visions series, Christ’s Haloes or the Sensitivities of Light: (6) the Peaceful and Serene. Ensor may have become acquainted with the qualities of pre-prepared panels as supports when seeking out the right materials for this pastiche of a late Medieval religious scene. He used panels of increasingly smaller size during the decade that followed.⁴

When Ensor worked on such panels, the design tends to become distinctly linear and the contours of all parts become prominent. This is also the case in this painting, where he even used a thin, sharp object (a needle?) to partially scratch the moustache, beard and hairdo into the paint. Ensor liked yellow accents but the function or the meaning of the yellow bow over Christ's shoulder is unknown. It was eventually conceived as a bust portrait.

Ensor showed the painting at Les XX in Brussels in 1893. Although the painting is very clearly dated 1891, Ensor placed it in his handwritten frame for the monographs by Emile Verhaeren (1908) and Grégoire Le Roy (1922). ⁵

Xavier Tricot, James Ensor. Leven en werk. Oeuvrecatalogus van de schilderijen, Brussel: Mercatorfonds & Pandora Publishers, 2009, nr. 331
Astrid Schenk, The Religious Oeuvre of James Ensor, https://jamesensor.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/en/news/online-publication-%e2%80%98the-religious-oeuvre-of-james-ensor%e2%80%99/ consulted 3/12/2024.

Against a red background surrounded by a white haze, a mask looks at us angrily. The mouth wide open. The forehead furrowed. It has long red hair, a moustache and a beard. Atop its head is a crown of thorns. Over its face flows blood, dripping from the beard. The character wears a very simple white garment with a green neckline.

Following Orthodox icons, a portrait of the suffering Christ with all traces of torture became popular during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Sometimes traces of the crucifixion are also visible so that the Man of Sorrows becomes a general image of Christ's excessive suffering instead of the representation of specific moment in his life. In the Old Testament (Isaiah 53), a prophetic description of a Messiah is given: He was despised, the most unworthy among men, a man of sorrows (...).¹

While studying at the academy in Brussels, Ensor depicted religious characters and stories. From 1886, in drawings such as Visions: The Aureoles of Christ or The Sensibilities of Light, etchings, paintings and lithographs (The Scenes from the Life of Christ of 1921), he would very often depict Christ. Three times, in the drawing The Calvary (1888? Private Collection), in Ecce homo (1891 Private Collection long-term loan to KMSKA), in The Mockery of Christ (1921), and in L’âme de douleur (1915, Private collection) he explicitly identified himself with the mocked and suffering Christ. In an 1898 verse in honour of his friend, Théo Hannon wrote: (il) Fit même, à son image, un tas de Christ exsangues … (He even made, after his own image, a bunch of bloodless Christs.)² But it is certainly not the case that every depiction of Christ refers to Ensor's portrayal of his own (alleged) misunderstanding.³

The face of the Man of Sorrows is clearly based on a Japanese devil mask from the Nô theatre. Ensor owned at least one postcard with a black-and-white image of such a Japanese devil mask. He transformed this evil face into the furious grimace of the suffering Christ. The material-technical examination, particularly the X-ray image, shows how Ensor, after drawing the devil mask in black chalk on the white ground of the panel, apparently depicted a close up of Christ on the cross with the inscription INRI above his head. But he decided to paint over fragments of the cross and the inscription completely. The white blur around Christ's head is perhaps a remnant of an attempt to depict the Vera Eikoon. St Veronica or Berenice, according to Christian tradition, was a woman who offered Christ a cloth to wipe the sweat and blood from his face while carrying his cross, on the way to Golgotha. On this cloth (Veronica's ‘cloth’), a miracle is said to have depicted Jesus' face. The legend became a popular iconographic motif in the course of the 15th century. (The drawing L'âme de douleur shows, in an archaic style, the face of the 50-year-old Ensor on a veil, surrounded by several women.) Eventually, The Man of Sorrows was conceived as a portrait bust.

During various periods in his career, Ensor revealed a marked preference for using small, pre-prepared panels for his paintings and drawings. In 1886, he painted the Descent from the Cross in grisaille on a 60 cm x 47 cm panel. This was one of six images in his Visions series, Christ’s Haloes or the Sensitivities of Light: (6) the Peaceful and Serene. Ensor may have become acquainted with the qualities of pre-prepared panels as supports when seeking out the right materials for this pastiche of a late Medieval religious scene. He used panels of increasingly smaller size during the decade that followed.⁴

When Ensor worked on such panels, the design tends to become distinctly linear and the contours of all parts become prominent. This is also the case in this painting, where he even used a thin, sharp object (a needle?) to partially scratch the moustache, beard and hairdo into the paint. Ensor liked yellow accents but the function or the meaning of the yellow bow over Christ's shoulder is unknown. It was eventually conceived as a bust portrait.

Ensor showed the painting at Les XX in Brussels in 1893. Although the painting is very clearly dated 1891, Ensor placed it in his handwritten frame for the monographs by Emile Verhaeren (1908) and Grégoire Le Roy (1922). ⁵

Xavier Tricot, James Ensor. Leven en werk. Oeuvrecatalogus van de schilderijen, Brussel: Mercatorfonds & Pandora Publishers, 2009, nr. 331
Astrid Schenk, The Religious Oeuvre of James Ensor, https://jamesensor.vlaamsekunstcollectie.be/en/news/online-publication-%e2%80%98the-religious-oeuvre-of-james-ensor%e2%80%99/ consulted 3/12/2024.

The Man of Sorrows is painted on a thin, hardwood panel, probably oak, of small dimensions (21.4 x 16 cm). The back of the panel has bevelled edges, a layer of varnish and the remains of 4 labels.
The white ground layer is smooth and even and is not fully covered by the paint layer. Paint has been scraped away, mostly in the hair and face, exposing the color of the ground layer as a result. There is a detailed pencil underdrawing. This underdrawing remains visible to the naked eye both because it is not entirely overpainted and also because the paint layers covering it are thin. The areas of shadow beneath the nose, mouth and lower lip are cross-hatched in pencil.

There are visible pencil lines on the red background paint layer around the Man of Sorrows’ head. This may have something to do with changing the painting’s composition from a horizontal to a vertical design. The initial horizontal composition is clearly visible to the naked eye, thanks to the pasty red paint layer. A thin zinc-white layer was applied over this when it was changed to a vertical design.

Fine brushes were used for the painting of this work. There are visible scraping marks in the background caused with a palette knife. The work was executed both wet on wet and wet on dry and the paint applied was sometimes thick and sometimes fluid.
The signature is at lower right accompanied by the date which has been traced over with a different pigment and changed from 91 to 1891.

At least four different reds paints have been identified. Under UV light, the characteristic pink/orange fluorescence of a red lake can be seen. This red lake is now barely visible to the naked eye as it has faded throughout time.
There is some type of gold paint present which has degraded.
The painting is covered by a layer of grime; there are also some lacunae and damaged impastos.
There is no varnish layer on the painting and no traces of an old varnish layer have been detected. The painting appears to be in its original state.

This work is painted on ring-porous hardwood panel, probably native oak. The panel is quite thin at only 6 to 7 mm thick; the grain runs vertically. The back edges are bevelled in the traditional way. Chisel marks can be observed along its right-hand side; this may indicate a slight adjustment to the panel to fit the frame.

There is a protective layer of varnish on the back of the panel. It is unclear whether this layer was applied by the artist, or later by the owner or the museum. There are also the remains of four different labels on the back of the panel referring to earlier exhibitions.

There are no real traces of previous restorations, although the remains of brown paper can be seen around the edges of the panel. This is something present on many works in the collection and should be interpreted as a later intervention to secure the panel in the frame.

The application of the ground layer is fairly smooth and even. It is a white ground based on lead-white. The ground layer is not entirely covered by the paint layers in the Man of Sorrows’ face, so that the white of the ground is still visible. Furthermore, Ensor scratched into the paint layer and ground to expose the white of the ground and allow its colour to play a role; this is mostly visible in the hair.

There are no signs of adhesion problems in the ground layer; the adhesion between the support and the ground layer and between the ground layer and paint layer is good. The ground layer is lightly damaged along the edges of the panel from friction with the edge of the frame. These lacunae are old and felt has been placed in the rebate of the frame to prevent further material losses.

There is an underdrawing in a dry medium, most probably pencil, easily seen with the naked eye. It is most clearly visible around the Man of Sorrows’ nose and mouth. However, in some places the drawing appears to lie on top of the paint layer. When it comes to the reds, this is best explained by the reduced covering power of the pigment in an ageing paint layer. The red lake in particular has lost its covering power over time. This is shown on the detail photos (microscope photo, 4x magnification).

The Man of Sorrows’ face was sketched on the panel in detail. The areas of shadow beneath his nose and lower lip and in his open mouth are cross-hatched in pencil. The infrared image shows the Man of Sorrows’ head framed by pencil lines drawn on top of the red background paint layer. The zinc white layer covering it was applied quite thin so these pencil lines remain clearly visible through this white paint layer. These straight lines do not appear to have been drawn with a ruler, unlike in Azaleas (1920-1930, in. 2346, KMSKA); they appear to have been drawn freehand.

The painting is executed in oil paint and is small in size. Ensor predominantly made use of fine brushes in a variety of ways to create a play of textures.

Ensor began with a horizontal design for the work in a pasty red paint layer, as can be clearly seen on the x-ray. The red layer has cracked in some areas which allows the white ground layer to be seen through the craquelure. The horizontal layout is also visible to the naked eye in normal light and through the thick paint layer in raking light. Paint was scraped away with a palette knife at the top of the horizontal layout to create a more even background. The scrape marks are still visible, showing as vertical lines in the background.

Ensor applied a thin layer of zinc white over the red paint layer of the background when he changed the composition to vertical. The horizontal and vertical pencil lines on the red paint layer may have something to do with the changed design.

At bottom left of the zinc white layer in the background, the paint appears grainy and in other places it has been applied more thinly. This layer has a rather waxy texture. It looks as if Ensor dabbed his paint, but this may have been an accident as it only occurs in one area. Partial thumbprints can also be seen in limited areas, indicating that the artist used his thumbs to manipulate the paint layer.

The face was painted on the white ground, following the underdrawing closely. The colour of the white ground plays an important role in the painting as this layer was not overpainted in full and therefore remains visible. The texture of the face was created by applying fine, slightly pasty brushstrokes with the occasional impasto. This was done with a brush with short, hard bristles. The brushmarks are visible in the nose area where accents of colour were added to the still wet, white paint (figure 11 black arrow).

The outlines of the face and the paint strokes resembling blood were added with a fine, long-haired brush. Most of these were applied quite dry and slightly pasty with the exception of the red red lake, which appears more dilute. This is probably because this colour already contained more binder when it came out of the tube than to any addition by the artist (figure 11 blue arrow).

Ensor made scratches in de paint layer for the hair and numerous accents on the face. It is not entirely clear whether he did this with the back of the brush, the tip of a palette knife, or another sharp instrument such as an etching needle. The scratches are not only in the paint layer but are also in the ground.

Lower right:
Ensor 1891

The signature and date Ensor 91 were added in red/brown paint. The date beneath the signature was later changed from ‘91 to 1891. All the numbers of the date were painted over with black paint which has a different intensity on the infrared image.

At first glance, the colour palette of this work seems quite simple, however it contains several accent colours.

Red: The red colour takes the lead role in this work.
When we compare the UV and infrared images to the painting, it appears that at least four different reds were used, one of which is the red lake that is mainly found in the artist’s late period, in works like Azaleas (1920-1930, inv. 2346, KMSKA) and Flowers and Vegetables (1896, inv. 1858, KMSKA). However, this pigment has aged so poorly that it is scarcely visible any longer under normal light. Under UV light it has its characteristic pink/orange fluorescence.

The black and white image (figure 20) shows the location of the different reds.

A type of gold paint, or a layer of metal leaf in mica-powder form was used in this painting; it is severely corroded. It is unclear how this layer is attached to the layer beneath it; it may have simply been sprinkled over the wet paint layer. No binding agent can be detected by the naked eye.

A similar layer of gold paint can also be found on Figure revêche (1890, oil paint on panel, 24.5x19cm, private collection). On that painting, the paint layer appears to have been mixed with a lot of binding agent and painted quite dilute as can be seen in the dripping of the gold paint.

The crown of thorns was painted with a pigment of an unusual consistency; under the microscope its consistency appears very grainy. The hair is painted with a range of earth pigments including red, yellow, orange and blue shades.

There is a substantial layer of grime covering the paint layer which has embedded itself between the pasty brushstrokes. This layer covers the entire surface and can be found in its greatest concentrations where the pigments were mixed with larger quantities of oil, like in the red lake.

There are lacunae in various places, mostly in the red and pink areas and around the edges of the panel. Several impastos in the reddish-brown background area have been flattened. An impasto in the neck area has been broken which is visible to the naked eye. Additional broken impastos are visible under the microscope spread across the entire surface area of the face. As well as the scratches deliberately made by the artist, there are several scratches that can be considered damage.

Youth cracks are limited to the lower left and right-hand corners; these are most pronounced on the left-hand side in the area where the pink lake touches the reddish-brown layer.
The reddish-brown paint is very sensitive; cleaning causes reddish-brown granules to detach. This issue has been previously remarked upon by restorers working on the red areas of other works by Ensor.

There is no protective layer present. The painting is definitively in its original state without traces of old varnish to be found anywhere.

R. Leten Collection, Ghent; C. Leten Collection, Ghent; Galerie W. D'Huyser, Brussels and Frans Aerts Gallery, Ostend; bought from André Verbeken, 1990.

07/07/1999 conservation treatment by Ineke Labarque. Reframing, securing the inner frame within the outer frame, adding a new hanging system (Protech), applying a barcode, applying acid-free cardboard to the back, surface cleaning of the paint surface. The surface grime is difficult to remove; the yellow is sensitive to water; labels from the back were removed and put in an envelope in the painting’s restoration file.

21/09/2016 condition report by Lies Vanbiervliet.

1893, Brussels, Centre for Fine Arts, Les XX. Brussels. Tenth Annual Exhibition, no. 2;
1893, Ghent, Cercle Artistique et Littéraire, XX, no. 2;
1920, Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, James Ensor, no. 66;
1929, Brussels, Centre for Fine Arts, James Ensor, no. 190;
1945, Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, James Ensor, no. 64;
1946, London, National Gallery, The Works of James Ensor, no. 30, image no. V;
1951, New York, The Modern Museum of Art, James Ensor, no. 43;
1951, Boston, The Institute of Contemporary Art, James Ensor, no. 43;
1951, New York, The Modern Museum of Art, James Ensor, no. 43;
1951, St. Louis, City Art Museum, James Ensor, no. 43;
1960, Ostend, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Feestpaleis, James Ensor, no. 64;
1961, Otterlo, Kröller-Müller Museum, Ensor. 1860/1949, no. 46;
1961, Rotterdam, Museum Boymans Van Beuningen, Ensor. 1860/1949, no. 46;
1962, Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Ensor, no. 33;
1962, Otterlo, Kröller-Müller Museum, De Twintig en hun tijdgenoten, no. 33;
1969, Ghent, Museum of Fine Arts, Ensor in de Gentse verzamelingen, no. 21;
1970, Paris, l'Orangerie, L'Art Flamand d'Ensor à Permeke, no. 27, image;
1971, London, The Royal Academy of Arts, Ensor to Permeke. Nine Flemish Painters 1880-1950, no. 118;
1972, Kamakura, The Museum of Modern Art, James Ensor Exhibition, no. 23, image;
1972, Nagoya, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, James Ensor Exhibition, no. 23, image;
1972, Fukuoka, Prefectoral Museum of Art, James Ensor Exhibition, no. 23, image;
1972/ 1973, Kyoto, The National Museum of Modern Art, James Ensor Exhibition, no. 23, image;
1976/ 1977, Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Ensor, no. 34, image;
1977, New York, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Ensor, no. 34, image;
1983, Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, James Ensor, no. 89, image p. 46;
1983, Zürich, Kunsthaus Zürich, James Ensor, no. 82, image p. 269;
1990, Paris, Musée du Petit Palais, James Ensor, no. 169, image p. 204;
1993/ 1994, Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, In depot / uit depot. De modernen in het koninklijk museum, image p. 30;
1997, Ghent, Museum of Fine Arts Ghent, Paris-Bruxelles, Bruxelles-Paris. Brussels-Paris. Les relations artistiques entre la France et la Belgique, 1848-1914, no. 219, image p. 313;
1997, Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris-Bruxelles. Brussels-Paris. Les relations artistiques entre la France et la Belgique, 1848-1914, no. 219, image p. 313;
1999/ 2000, Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Ensor, no. 98, image p. 161;
2000, Brussels, Centre for Fine Arts, Crossroads of Cultures, image. p. 197;
2005, Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, James Ensor: Japonisme to Modernism, no. 33, image p. 71;
2005, Tsu City, Mie Prefectural Art Museum, James Ensor: Japonisme to Modernism, no. 33, image p. 71;
2005, Fukushima, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, James Ensor: Japonisme to Modernism, no. 33, image p. 71;
2005, Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, James Ensor: Japonisme to Modernism, no. 33, image p. 71;
2005, Takamatsu, Takamatsu City Museum of Art, James Ensor: Japonisme to Modernism, no. 33, image p. 71;
2008/ 2009, Machelen-aan-de-Leie, Roger Raveelmuseum, Ensor & Raveel, image p. 42;
2009, Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Goya, Redon, Ensor. Grotesque paintings and drawings, image p. 14;
2009, Saitama, The Museum of Modern Art, James Ensor, no. 76, image p. 167;
2009/ 2010, Paris, Musée du Petit Palais, James Ensor, no. 115, image p. 206;
2010/ 2011, Ghent, Museum of Fine Arts and S.M.A.K. – Municipal Museum of Contemporary Art, Hareng Saur. Ensor and contemporary art, no. 20, image p. 121;
2011, The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, James Ensor. A visionary universe, image p. 125;
2012, Aichi, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, James Ensor in Context. Ensor and the History of European Art from the Collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, no. 133, image p. 161;
2012, Ehime, The Museum of Art, James Ensor in Context. Ensor and the History of European Art from the Collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, no. 133, image p. 161;
2012, Tokyo, Seiji Togo Memorial Sompo Japan Museum of Art, James Ensor in Context. Ensor and the History of European Art from the Collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, no. 133, image p. 161;
2012/ 2013, Iwate, Iwate Museum of Art, James Ensor in Context. Ensor and the History of European Art from the Collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, no. 133, image p. 161;
2013, Okayama, The Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, James Ensor in Context. Ensor and the History of European Art from the Collection of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, no. 133, image p. 161;
2013/ 2014, Ordrupgaard, James Ensor Fra Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen og schweiziske samlinger, no. 118, image;
2014, Basel, Kunstmuseum,The surprised masks: James Ensor from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp and Swiss collections, no. 118, image;
2014, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Getty Center, The Scandalous Art of James Ensor (no catalogue);
2014/ 2015, Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, Temptation: The Demons of James Ensor (no catalogue);
2016/ 2017, London, Royal Academy of Arts, Intrigue: James Ensor by Luc Tuymans, no. 20, image p. 67;
2018/ 2019, Ostend, Mu.ZEE, Dreams of mother-of-pearl. The ENSOR collection of the KMSKA in Ostend, (not in the publication);
2021, Mannheim, Kunsthalle, James Ensor, no. 98, image p. 177;