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The Orchard, 1886

  • etching, paper
  • 160 x 240 mm
  • Inv. 1998-B-2-2

Public Domain

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Ensor usually based his graphics on his own drawings, or derived certain motifs from them. As far as is known, however, Ensor drew few landscapes. In view of the relatively large number of landscape etchings (about 20), it seems as if the artist went straight into nature with the etching plate. Ensor etched a few faces in the woods around Ostend and made a series of polder landscapes with villages, detached houses or windmills: Mariakerke, Leffinge, Slijkens and Oudenburg. As an etcher after nature, Ensor was especially fascinated by the rendering of the light in the woods and on the polder plain. He etched with small, nervous traits that tremble with tension. His landscapes are characterised by controlled, sparse writing, which gives them an evocative power. According to the author Albert Croquez, who catalogued Ensor's etchings in 1935, the depiction is of an orchard in Oudenburg near Ostend. The Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf has a drawing with the same scene. The original etching plate from 1886 was reused for Die Insel.

Artist

James Ensor RKD VIAF Wikidata
Ostend 1860 - Ostend 1949
etchersAAT

Title The Orchard
Date 1886
Period 19th century
Medium and support etching AAT
Signatures, inscriptions, and markings printed inscription bottom right: ENSOR 1886
Collection print room
Object type etching AAT
Inventory number 1998-B-2-2
Acquisition credit purchase
Taevernier, Auguste (coll.)
1998
Current whereabouts Work currently not on display
Permalink https://mskgent.be/collection/work/data/1998-B-2-2
IIIF Manifest https://imagehub.mskgent.be/iiif/3/3991/manifest.json
Art & Architecture Thesaurus 300015636 landscapes AAT
Keywords Iconclass 25G3 trees Iconclass
25G4(GRASS) plants and herbs (GRASS) Iconclass
25H1 landscapes in the temperate zone Iconclass
25H17 meadow, pasture Iconclass
300015636 landscapes AAT
47I411 orchard Iconclass
61E(OUDENBURG) names of cities and villages (OUDENBURG) Iconclass
School / Style realism (artistic form of expression) AAT
James Ensor : Catalogue illustré de ses gravures ; Leur description critique et l'inventaire des plaques = Geïllustreerde catalogus van zijn gravures ; Hun kritische beschrijving en inventaris van de platen = Illustrated catalogue of his engravings ; Their critical description and inventary of the plates / Auguste Taevernier. - Ledeberg (Gent) : Erasmus Boekhandel bv Amsterdam, 1973 (nr. 2)
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