The mask motif appears for the first time in Ensor's works. This is nothing other than the disguised version of a family episode: the individual, dressed up with a thick cardboard nose, sitting in front of a half-empty bottle of alcohol, is the painter's father. He is caught in his drunken state by his wife, menacingly dressed as a witch, her face hidden behind a mask whose black holes represent the eye sockets of a skull.