View of the Van Iseghemlaan 1906

James Ensor's "View of the Van Iseghemlaan" is a dreamy vision of his native Ostend in Belgium. It's like he's conjuring the street rather than just painting it. You know, I can almost feel him there at his easel, squinting, mixing these muted, almost pastel colours. He lays down these gentle strokes, one after another, finding the forms. What’s remarkable is how Ensor captures the light, especially those pale blues in the sky. It casts such a subtle, almost ghostly glow over the buildings. The way he renders the rooftops, a flurry of soft red hues, is something else. I wonder if he felt a sense of melancholy, watching the city change, or maybe he was just trying to capture a fleeting moment, the way light transforms a familiar place. Painters, we're always in conversation with each other, riffing on the same themes, seeing what we can bring to the table. Ensor has a particular way of looking at the world, one that’s both grounded and utterly dreamlike.