The Intrigue 1911

James Ensor made this painting called "The Intrigue" with oil on canvas, but its date is unknown. I can only imagine the intrigue of creating this artwork with a palette dominated by chalky, unsettling hues, punctuated by rouge lips. I sympathize with Ensor as I try to get inside his head when he made this. Was he thinking about the theater and its masks? Or maybe the way society itself can be a masquerade? The paint isn’t too thick, but the gestures are—you can feel the artist's hand moving, pushing the paint around to make these weird faces. That red—it's almost violent, like a scream. It jumps out at you. It reminds me of other painters who weren't afraid to be strange, like Paula Modersohn-Becker. Artists are always talking to each other across time, you know, inspiring each other to push boundaries. This painting embraces that—it's messy, a little scary, but full of possibility. It’s as if he’s saying, "Here, make of this what you will".