Study of a Wild Animal 

James Ensor made this sketch, titled 'Study of a Wild Animal,' sometime during his career. Ensor was a Belgian artist associated with the avant-garde movement. His art often explored themes of social critique, the grotesque, and the absurd, reflecting the anxieties of a rapidly changing society. This drawing of a wild animal is part of the European colonial context. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, encounters with the ‘exotic’ were common in European society. The animal is rendered with visible, anxious marks, rather than with scientific precision. This approach could be read as Ensor highlighting not the authority of knowledge, but the inherent untamability of nature, and perhaps the futility of colonial control. Ensor’s expressive style also conveys the animal’s raw power and potential for disruption. How might Ensor be challenging the traditional representations of power and control that were so dear to European society?