Drie koppels in het bos 1888

James Ensor’s etching, "Three Couples in the Woods," presents a scene steeped in both naturalism and an undercurrent of social commentary. The figures, entwined within the dense foliage, evoke the age-old motif of the "garden of love"—a space historically laden with both pleasure and peril. Consider the symbolic weight of the forest itself: from antiquity to the Renaissance, woodlands have represented the untamed aspects of human nature, a place where societal norms dissolve, and primal instincts take over. Think of the forest in Titian’s "Bacchanal," where similar themes of love, abandon, and the loss of control play out. The trees in Ensor's etching twist and loom, almost as characters themselves, framing the couples in an embrace that may suggest both comfort and confinement. The motif of couples in nature is not new, but Ensor infuses it with a disquieting ambiguity. The scene becomes a mirror reflecting our own conflicted desires and societal expectations. The forest, therefore, acts as a stage where the drama of human relationships unfolds, echoing through the ages in art and in our collective memory.