The dangerous cooks

The painting was created a couple of years after the Les XX group was disbanded. Les XX (The Twenty) was a group of twenty artists that was established in 1883 by entrepreneur Octave Maus and Ensor was one of the founding members.

Ensor had a number of disagreements with Maus, as secretary of the group. For example, the group would invite external artists to exhibit alongside them at their annual exhibition, some of whom Ensor objected to. Whilst he successfully opposed some of these invitation others were supported by other members of the group.

One such instance saw the Les XX group invite Georges Seurat to take part in their annual exhibition – an artist whose work Ensor loathed. Ensor was overruled by other members of Les XX and Seurat exhibited as a part of the Brussels Salon.

The Dangerous Cooks painting is a response to these fractious disagreements that Ensor had with Maus and other members of Les XX during his time as a part of the group. In fact the man depicted serving Ensor’s head up on a plate is Octave Maus, and other severed heads around the painting are representative of other members of Les XX; Anna Boch, who was a keen advocate of Seurat’s inclusion in their salon, is depicted here with her head atop the body of a plucked chicken on the wall to the left.