JAMES ENSOR (1860-1949)

Aside from personifications of Death, religious scenes were central to Ensor’s oeuvre; no fewer than 13 of his etchings depict scenes from the life of Jesus. In L'Entrée du Christ à Bruxelles (1889), Ensor imagines Jesus arriving as a revolutionary political figure during the maelstrom of the Brussels carnival. Ensor regularly attended carnivals in Ostend and Brussels and was fascinated by the energy and noise of the crowds, and their latent potential for violence.
According to tradition, Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and was hailed as a liberating king; a few days later the same crowd shouted for his execution before the Roman authorities. In L'Entrée du Christ à Bruxelles , the fickle nature of the throng is suggested by the masked and grimacing faces, evoking a terrible sense of foreboding. The implication is that, were Jesus actually to have turned up in late 19th-century Brussels, he’d have been crucified once again.