Horsemen 

James Ensor made this drawing, Horsemen, with pencil on paper, likely at the end of the 19th century in Belgium. We see Ensor exploring his familiar themes of social critique and the grotesque. This sketch appears to depict military figures on horseback, possibly engaged in some kind of conflict or parade. The loose, frenzied lines convey a sense of chaos, which could be interpreted as a commentary on the pointless violence of war. The work’s ambiguity may also reflect Ensor's own ambivalence toward authority and the military establishment in Belgium. As an artist working outside the mainstream art world, Ensor often used his art to challenge social norms and critique the institutions of his time. To understand more fully what’s going on here, one would need to look at Ensor’s other works as well as the historical records of Belgium’s involvement in military conflicts at the end of the 19th Century. Only through these kinds of contextual analyses can the public role of this art be better understood.