De afgunst 1904

James Ensor made this etching, “De afgunst,” or “The Envy,” with a kind of frenetic energy, I can almost see his hand flying across the plate, digging into the surface with a needle. The lines are so close together, creating this buzzy, almost claustrophobic feeling. Look at the way he renders the figures, they're all crammed together, their faces contorted in these grotesque expressions. Each mark feels urgent, like he’s trying to capture a fleeting thought or emotion. The texture he creates is almost tangible; you can practically feel the scratchiness of the lines. Notice how the light seems to flicker across the surface, adding to the overall sense of unease. The detail of the tiny frog feels like a comment on evolution and hellishness. Ensor was definitely doing his own thing, but I think he was looking at Goya's darker works and maybe even some of the medieval grotesque imagery. Ultimately though, his approach is all his own! He embraces the weird, the ugly, and the ambiguous, inviting us to see the world through his wonderfully strange lens.