A previously unknown painting by Belgian painter James Ensor has recently resurfaced and will go up for auction this week with a starting price of €80,000.
The painting is a portrait of the artist’s mother Marie Louise Cathérine Haegheman, painted when she was aged 65. On the back of the canvas is the unflattering title ‘Débris’, along with Ensor's name and his address, Rue de Flandre 27 in Ostend (now the James Ensor House).
The work had been in the same family for several generations and was therefore overlooked in James Ensor’s catalogue raissoné. However, the Ensor Advisory Committee has confirmed its authenticity as a work by Ensor.
‘Débris’ will go up for auction at Arenberg Auctions between 12 and 14 June, alongside works by Paul Delvaux, René Magritte, Léon Spilliaert and Salvador Dali.
'A deeply personal portrait'
Jeroen Luyckx, an expert from Arenberg Auctions, told Belga News Agency: “Ensor's anniversary year has passed, but it's remarkable that this portrait is reappearing now.
“The fact that it is a very personal portrait makes it an important addition to Ensor's oeuvre”.
The auction house described the painting as a “deeply personal portrait”. It shows Ensor's mother posing next to a Chinese vase. Behind her on the wall is a frame with a painting of a young woman. This painting of the young woman once hung in the Ensor family living room.
Ensor, who had a somewhat tumultuous relationship with his mother, also painted her in 1882 and on her deathbed in 1915. According to the auction house, the 1900 painting "fills the gap of more than 30 years between these documented works".
Earlier this year, it emerged that an etching by Ensor had been found in a charity shop in Antwerp. The etching, titled Le meuble hanté (The haunted furniture), was later donated to Antwerp’s Royal Museum of Fine Arts.
