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Intro
Among the items spread out before us in this painting by James Ensor are apples and pears, grapes and onions. The grapes glow intensely, appearing fresh and full of life—but as we approach the center of the picture we are confronted with death. The colorful plumage of the cockerel hung by its feet is only a pale reflection of the living, and the wilted leaves of the leeks also allude to inexorable decay.
Here, the Belgian artist employs classical still-life symbolism, which experienced its zenith in 17th-century Dutch and Flemish painting, to give expression to the transience of all things. He does, however, simultaneously temper the gravity of death through the brilliant light of his painting, transforming it into a symbol of the living moment. For Ensor, the still-life genre possesses great importance and constantly reappears in his work from the early 1880s onward: sometimes populated by masks and skeletons—one of Ensor’s trade marks—and sometimes, as here, characterized by precisely detailed stagings.
Acquired in 1956 with the support of Louis Bahner Elbeowerke; C.F. Boehringer & Söhne; Brown, Boveri & Cie. AG, Mannheim; Carl Freudenberg KG, Weinheim; Mannheimer Motorenwerke; Kaufhaus Vetter, Mannheim; Joseph Vögele, Mannheim
Transkription
A dead black-and-white cockerel is hanging in a loose noose from a beam, for bleeding. To the left, there are the ingredients required for chicken soup – carrots, leek, onions –, and then there is that wilted cabbage peppered with yellow and blue light effects. To the right of the cadaver there are grapes and pears, promising a good dessert, arranged in front of a willow basket with cabbage leaves.
But Belgian James Ensor was not thinking of a feast when painting this „nature morte“ at age 34. The painter and printmaker employed classic symbols for still lifes which had been very popular in Dutch and Flemish painting in the 17thcentury, and which points to the transience of all beings.
The arrangement of the items depicted refers to this higher level of meaning in the painting: though already slightly wilted, the vegetables to the left are imbued with surprising beauty through Ensor’s delicate color nuances. The fresh, bulging fruit to the right almost glows. The formal and contextual core of this juxtaposition is the dead cockerel’s head, surrounded by splashes of blood. These seemingly harmless objects meld into a morbid vanitas scenario: all works of man are vain, the mundane is short-lived.
Have you noticed how extraordinarily three-dimensional Ensor’s use of color is? The white of the tablecloth shows a structure and texture different from the billowing curtain. Towards the back of the picture there is a rough, whitewashed kitchen wall with blue fissures. In front we see various shades of white in the plumage, and the white cabbage leaves tend towards yellow. Using the most delicate color shades, richness of detail, and capricious reflections of light, Ensor conjures up a transient symphony in white upon his 80 x 100 cm canvas.
But his skill met with little response. His work up to then had been refused by the Antwerp and Brussels Salons, the painter group „Les XX“ expelled him. Critics assailed him verbally. Many years later, after having been knighted, then made a baron by the Belgian king, Ensor described his traumatic beginnings: „A hailstorm of damning criticism pounded upon me; ever since I never let go of my umbrella; people revile me, insult me, I am said to be mad, stupid, bad, evil, incapable, ignorant; a simple Cabbagebecomes a disgrace!“