James Ensor: Life and Work

Norbet Hostyn, curator of the Museum of Fine Art in Ostend, has produced a fascinating and comprehensive account of the world and ideas of the by turns celebrated and vilified James Ensor (1860-1949). He offers an illuminating introduction to the artist's life and oeuvre, accompanied by a selection of fifty representative works, each comprising a large, colour reproduction and an art-historical commentary. It is the story of a striking and controversial painter who was initially the focal point of a new school, but later became an eccentric with a finely tuned sense of image and business.