Lot Essay
La Cathédrale was one of the best known of Ensor’s prints during his lifetime. As his practice was to print impressions on demand, popularity of this subject led to the plate deteriorating through repeated printing. To avoid having to print from a very worn plate, Ensor made a second version, an almost exact copy of the first. This example of the first version is an early impression before the addition of a signature and date at upper right and the cleaning of the sky, and without any wear to the plate.
The towering structure of the building draws upon the architecture of three cathedrals, Aachen, Vienna and Antwerp, which Ensor knew or had seen illustrated in the journal Le Magasin Pittoresque. Combining elements of each, Ensor created a fantastical, shimmering edifice, which seems not only to reflect, but to emanate, light. The cathedral is surrounded by a carnival procession, with fluttering flags and banners, marching soldiers and costumed revellers. This seething mass of humanity calls to mind Balzac’s description of 'Thousands of people squeezed together, like ants around their nests’ in the short story Jesus-Christ en Flandre, a possible literary source for the etching (H. de Balzac, Jesus-Christ en Flandre, in La Comédie humaine: études philosophiques, 1846, quoted in: D. Lesko, James Ensor – The Creative Years, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1985, p. 86). The densely ornamented surface of the stone edifice almost finds its translation into flesh and blood in the meticulously detailed facial expressions and antics of the crowd. The print has generally been interpreted as a social critique, in which the sublime structure of the church, a symbol of mankind’s highest aspirations, is contrasted with the chaotic crowd, representative of humanity's lower instincts.
The towering structure of the building draws upon the architecture of three cathedrals, Aachen, Vienna and Antwerp, which Ensor knew or had seen illustrated in the journal Le Magasin Pittoresque. Combining elements of each, Ensor created a fantastical, shimmering edifice, which seems not only to reflect, but to emanate, light. The cathedral is surrounded by a carnival procession, with fluttering flags and banners, marching soldiers and costumed revellers. This seething mass of humanity calls to mind Balzac’s description of 'Thousands of people squeezed together, like ants around their nests’ in the short story Jesus-Christ en Flandre, a possible literary source for the etching (H. de Balzac, Jesus-Christ en Flandre, in La Comédie humaine: études philosophiques, 1846, quoted in: D. Lesko, James Ensor – The Creative Years, Princeton University Press, New Jersey, 1985, p. 86). The densely ornamented surface of the stone edifice almost finds its translation into flesh and blood in the meticulously detailed facial expressions and antics of the crowd. The print has generally been interpreted as a social critique, in which the sublime structure of the church, a symbol of mankind’s highest aspirations, is contrasted with the chaotic crowd, representative of humanity's lower instincts.