Still life with chinoiseries 1907

James Ensor, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, made this painting with what looks like oil on canvas. His painting is a real balancing act of colours and forms that feels both deliberate and totally off the cuff. There’s this turquoise tablecloth taking up most of the foreground, painted in a way where you can see every brushstroke. The paint is thick and juicy, and the way he dabs and swirls it around makes the fabric feel almost alive. Scattered across are objects that all seem to be clamoring for attention. There is a mask that kind of dominates the scene, but then there are all these other things, fans and vases that add to the overall sense of… theatricality, maybe? Ensor loved this kind of strange combination of things. Like you see in the work of Philip Guston, it’s like he's inviting us into his world, a world where things don't quite make sense but are fascinating nonetheless.