The Little Fountain and Other Figures 1880 - 1886

James Ensor made this etching of figures including "The Little Fountain" in Belgium at the end of the 19th Century. It brings together characters from different registers of social life in a single scene. The nude figure derives from the classical tradition and the top-hatted bourgeois gentleman would not look out of place in a society portrait. But how do these figures relate? Ensor was deeply critical of the Belgian bourgeoisie. His family ran a souvenir shop, and he saw the crass commercialism of the tourist trade as a symptom of cultural decay. He was also suspicious of academic art, which he saw as stuffy and out of touch. Ensor had a radical attitude to both art and social class, which is what makes him so interesting to study. If we want to understand his vision, we can turn to sources like letters, exhibition reviews, and the history of Belgian art institutions. Doing that, we realize that Ensor was one of the great iconoclasts of his time.