Portret van Ernest Rousseau 1887

This drawing of Ernest Rousseau was made by James Ensor using graphite on paper. Look closely and you'll notice the repetitive, almost mechanical quality of Ensor’s hatching. It doesn't so much model the form of Rousseau as flatten it out, turning his torso into a field of parallel lines. The effect is almost like seeing Rousseau as a schematic, rather than a fully present individual. Ensor might be gently mocking Rousseau's social position as a professor and intellectual, reducing him to a set of predictable marks. Or perhaps it’s a reflection of the industrial age in which Ensor lived, where labor was increasingly regimented and repetitive. Whatever the reason, Ensor's choice of material and technique prompts us to consider the social context in which this portrait was made, hinting that even the most seemingly straightforward of images can reveal deeper truths about labor, class, and representation.