<< 1877 >>

FR NL

Persoonlijk

Ensor meets Fernand Khnopff and Willy Finch at the academy and becomes friends with Théo Hannon. This is the only period in his life when the painter lives outside Ostend. His stay in Brussels is in fact short-lived. Through Théo Hannon he gets to know the latter's sister Mariette. Mariette's husband, Ernest Rousseau, was a professor at the ULB. Mariette, the daughter of a botanist, works at the Natural History Museum and specialises in the study of mushrooms. Ensor becomes a friend of the Rousseau's.

Artistiek

Ensor is now 17 years old, and takes lessons at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels: "The difficulties began as soon as I was admitted. I was commissioned to paint the bust of Octavian, based on a colourless plaster model. I immediately developed an aversion to the plaster, so I gave him a beautiful pink, vivid goose-bump colour and a red hair, to the excitement of the pupils. The excitement was followed by bullying, grinning and stomping. Completely overwhelmed by so much audacity, my teachers knew of nothing better to do than to let me do my own thing, and so from then on I painted freely from a live model."

Oostende