Ensor’s Mother and Silhouettes 1880 - 1883

James Ensor made this drawing of his mother and some other figures using graphite on paper. The qualities of the drawing stem directly from these humble materials. With the graphite pencil, Ensor sketches the contours of his mother’s face, with a focus on light and shadow. The artist is applying his own skill to control the material, and the marks are quickly applied, and not overworked. The texture of the paper is a fine grain, which allows the artist to control the graphite, and create many small lines. The material qualities of graphite – its ready availability, its ease of application – allowed Ensor to produce this drawing. In Ensor’s time, graphicacy had become a common skill in industrialized society, from writing to technical drawing to art. Drawings like these show the social importance of graphicacy in culture. They are documents of skill, and the creative impulse.