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Wednesday, March 22, 2023

The Intrigue


James Ensor, The Intrigue (1890) 

Ensor regularly depicted his characters with grotesque masks, as if they were members of some surreal carnival. While a mask is intended to hide who we are, it can have an uncanny way of actually revealing who we are. 

The scene was apparently inspired by the gossip about a scandalous marriage in Ensor's family, showing how we love to pervert what ought to be beautiful. 



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