James Ensor Paintings: Introduction
James Ensor’s paintings refuse a tidy journey from realism to fantasy. The same artist who watched light move across the North Sea also painted hushed rooms, laden tables, biblical crowds, brittle skeletons and faces concealed by carnival masks. His subjects changed, but several concerns persisted: how colour can generate light, how a painted surface can hover between description and invention, and how an apparently finished picture might be revised years later.
This guide follows those connections across Ensor’s career. It places the celebrated masquerades inside a much wider practice and explains how close looking, conservation and technical imaging have changed what can responsibly be said about his working methods.
At a Glance
- Ensor’s painted work is estimated at approximately 850 paintings, not a fixed catalogue total.[1]
- His early pictures include realist studies, bourgeois interiors, seascapes, landscapes, portraits and still lifes.
- Light is not merely a subject in these works: it is often the force that organizes colour, space and attention.
- From about 1887, biblical visions, satire, carnival, masks and skeletons became increasingly prominent, without replacing still life or the sea.[1]
- He worked on canvas and panel, varied the density of his paint, and sometimes returned to alter or completely cover earlier compositions.[2]
- Specialized imaging can reveal layers and material evidence, but every result still requires interpretation.[3]
Selected James Ensor paintings

Skeletons Fighting over the Body of a Hanged Man
Contents
- Introduction
- A Painter Larger Than the Masks
- Early Realism and the Discipline of Light
- Interiors, Seascapes and Still Lifes
- Paint Handling, Supports and the Evidence Beneath the Surface
- The Experimental Shift of 1885–91
- Revision, Overpainting and the Unstable “Finished” Work
- Later Painting: Return, Repetition and Variation
- Selected Paintings
- How to Look at an Ensor Painting
A Painter Larger Than the Masks
Ensor is often introduced as “the painter of masks.” The phrase is memorable, but it can shrink the career it is meant to describe. An institutional overview by Herwig Todts estimates that about 850 paintings are known and identifies especially productive periods in 1876–83 and 1889–92, followed by renewed activity after 1920.[1] That estimate should remain approximate: it describes paintings attributed to Ensor, not every drawing, print, archival item or database record associated with him.
The breadth is easier to understand alongside Ensor’s biography. He trained in Brussels but made Ostend his enduring base. Its domestic interiors, changing skies, sea, beach culture and souvenir trade all entered his art. He also belonged to an active Belgian avant-garde and exhibited internationally. The result was not one continuous style but a practice in which realist observation, old-master references, modern urban experience and private invention repeatedly intersected.[4]
Early Realism and the Discipline of Light
Before the grotesque pictures of the late 1880s, Ensor developed through close observation. His early paintings include informal studies, views of Ostend, still lifes and modern interiors.[1] Many are restrained in colour. Forms can emerge gradually from browns, greys and subdued blues, while windows, reflective objects or a pale stretch of sky provide the decisive illumination. “Dark” therefore does not mean visually inert. A limited range can make a small difference in temperature or brightness feel unusually intense.
The domestic paintings are equally attentive to social space. Figures read, converse, sew, eat or sit within rooms that also function as arrangements of fabric, furniture, glass and framed pictures. Ensor does not always clarify whether the person or the surrounding things are the principal subject. That productive uncertainty reaches an early high point in The Oyster Eater, painted in 1882. His sister Mitche sits alone at a table set for two, yet the white cloth, napkins, tableware, food and reflected light compete with her presence. KMSKA describes the work as more than a portrait and asks whether it might also be understood as a still life.[5]
Colour in this painting is structural. Large white passages allow adjacent reds, yellows and blues to intensify one another, while thick and thin touches keep the surface active. The canvas was rejected when Ensor first sought to exhibit it and was not publicly shown in Brussels until 1886. Its reception matters because the qualities later praised as innovative—bright colour, unstable perspective and conspicuous handling—were among those earlier viewers found difficult.[5][6]
Interiors, Seascapes and Still Lifes
Ensor’s recurring genres are connected by acts of arrangement. In an interior, a chair, curtain and figure are set into a field of tonal relationships. In a seascape, bands of shore, water, cloud and atmosphere are balanced without necessarily becoming a topographical report. In a still life, shells, fish, flowers, bottles or fabrics become a testing ground for contour, colour and paint texture.
The sea gave Ensor an especially changeable subject. A view might be reduced to thin tonal zones or animated by broken touches that make water and sky seem to exchange light. A beach title alone, however, does not prove that a work was painted outside. That conclusion requires object-specific evidence. KMSKA researchers have, for example, reported grains of sand under magnification on a studied painting, but such a finding belongs to that material examination and should not be generalized to every coastal scene.[2]
Still life remained important across Ensor’s career rather than serving as a preliminary phase before masks arrived. KMSKA research on Mask and Crustaceans (Vive le Carême) places more than 230 still lifes across roughly six decades. In that 1891 panel, fish, a herring, lobster, crab, vessels and a dangling mask combine food, comic theatre and religious parody. Technical study also found an overpainted pot and a partly concealed “Vive Carême” inscription.[7] The example shows how Ensor could bring his observational and grotesque modes into a single picture: the objects remain insistently material even as their grouping turns strange.
Paint Handling, Supports and the Evidence Beneath the Surface
Ensor used both canvas and prepared wooden panels. Size mattered to the experience of a work: the immense procession of Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889 surrounds the viewer with a crowd, whereas a small panel such as Skeletons Fighting over a Pickled Herring compresses its joke into an almost toy-like encounter. Support also affected handling. A firm panel could accommodate tight contours and small, direct touches; canvas could carry anything from thin, open applications to heavier accents. These are tendencies to test against each object, not universal rules.
The visible surface provides the starting evidence. Brush direction, exposed ground, raised impasto, abrasion, cracks, varnish and later retouching can all change how colour is perceived. KMSKA’s scholarly catalogue examines paintings layer by layer: support, ground, underdrawing, paint, signature, damage, restoration and surface coating.[3] This sequence discourages a tempting shortcut—the idea that a scan supplies an uncomplicated view of what the artist “really intended.”
Different tools answer different questions. Raking light emphasizes surface relief, including impasto, cracks and distortions. Ultraviolet-induced fluorescence can distinguish some varnishes, restorations and overpaint, but not every material fluoresces uniquely. Infrared photography can make carbon-based underdrawing visible through some upper layers; a painted sketch or a non-carbon line may remain undetected. X-radiography records differences in how materials absorb X-rays and can expose hidden structures, alterations or reused compositions. It does not, by itself, date every layer or identify the reason for a change.[3]
X-ray fluorescence adds chemical information. Portable XRF detects elements at a measured point, but it gathers signals from superimposed layers and cannot identify every pigment unambiguously. Mapping systems can show where particular elements occur across a surface and help reconstruct an overpainted form. Even then, the map must be compared with visible, infrared and X-ray images, microscopy, conservation history and art-historical evidence.[3] Technical imaging makes the painting more legible; it does not turn interpretation into certainty.
The Experimental Shift of 1885–91
The later 1880s brought a striking expansion rather than a clean break. Ensor concentrated intensely on drawing and etching, explored religious visions and crowds, and introduced grotesque and satirical motifs drawn from scripture, literature, history, contemporary society, carnival and theatre.[1] His prints and drawings are therefore essential to understanding his painting. The vast joined-sheet Temptation of Saint Anthony of 1887 is a work on paper, not an oil painting, yet its swarming invention helps explain the new pressure placed on his painted compositions.[8]
The culmination is Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889, painted in 1888. Across a canvas more than four metres wide, Christ is almost lost within a modern procession of banners, officials, caricatured faces and competing slogans. The biblical entry becomes a contemporary public spectacle in which celebration, commercial display and political tension cannot be separated.[9][10] Its thinly spread crowds and fierce colour are far from the quiet tonal construction of an early interior, but both depend on controlling where the eye moves through a dense field.
Masks and skeletons offered further ways to disturb the boundary between object and actor. In Masks Confronting Death, draped masks press around a white-clad figure of Death; MoMA notes that the arrangement recalls Ensor’s earlier still lifes.[11] Astonishment of the Mask Wouse likewise scatters masks, clothing and musical instruments across the attic floor so that a still-life arrangement seems to animate itself.[12] For a fuller account of their social and theatrical roles, continue to masks, carnival and satire.
Revision, Overpainting and the Unstable “Finished” Work
Ensor sometimes treated an existing painting as available material. Current KMSKA research distinguishes three broad kinds of intervention: completely covering an earlier composition, significantly reworking part of a picture, and adding smaller finishing touches.[13] X-radiography has revealed an academic study of a bearded man beneath Still Life with Chinoiseries. In other cases, later additions are visible at the surface because their palette and handling differ from the earlier work.
The most accessible example is Self-portrait with flowered hat. The current Mu.ZEE record dates the painting to about 1885–88 and explains that Ensor transformed an earlier, more conventional portrait by adding the flowered hat and other details in 1888. He also inscribed the earlier date 1883.[14] The antedating is part of the object’s history, not a reason to discard the museum’s present dating.
Imaging can demonstrate that distinct layers or materials exist, but motive is harder to establish. Reuse might reflect dissatisfaction, compositional opportunity or another practical choice. KMSKA researchers explicitly reject an easy assumption that complete overpainting proves financial hardship, noting the generally high quality of the materials they have examined.[13] They also warn that subtle artist retouches can be difficult to distinguish from later conservation. The responsible conclusion is often limited: a change occurred; its extent can be described; its authorship or purpose may remain uncertain.
Later Painting: Return, Repetition and Variation
Ensor continued painting for decades after the 1890s. The approximate chronology identifies renewed production after 1920,[1] while KMSKA’s technical project describes selected late works with lighter, often more transparent paint that leaves areas of ground visible.[3] Neither point supports a simple story of steady decline or uninterrupted progress. Later pictures revisit masks, flowers, shells, seascapes, self-images and earlier compositions under new conditions of reputation and demand.
Repetition can mean several things: returning to a motif, making a variant, translating an idea between media or refreshing a familiar image for a new audience. Careful study should therefore ask what changed in scale, support, colour, handling and context rather than dismissing every recurrence as duplication.
Selected Paintings
- The Oyster Eater (1882) — A large interior in which Mitche’s quiet meal becomes a drama of white cloth, reflected light and saturated colour. It shows how much of Ensor’s later intensity was prepared within realist observation.[5]
- Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889 (1888) — A monumental public procession that folds a biblical event into modern Brussels, political display and carnival-like crowding.[9][10]
- Masks Confronting Death (1888) — Masks assembled like objects appear to challenge a central personification of death, turning still-life logic into theatrical confrontation.[11]
- Astonishment of the Mask Wouse (1889) — Clothing, instruments, masks and a skeleton occupy the attic studio. The museum’s interpretation retains an important uncertainty: which figure is Wouse, and what event is taking place, remain unresolved.[12]
- The Intrigue (1890) — Half-length figures, sharp gestures and colourful costumes form an ambiguous social encounter. KMSKA presents possibilities ranging from carnival group to wedding procession rather than fixing a single narrative.[15]
- Skeletons Fighting over a Pickled Herring (1891) — Two skeletons pull at a herring on a tiny panel. The compressed format makes the image simultaneously comic, violent and emblematic of criticism tugging at an artist.[16][17]
- Self-portrait with flowered hat (c. 1885–88) — A revised self-image whose bright hat, altered details and antedated inscription make the history of repainting visible within the portrait itself.[13][14]
Together these works show why no single mask can stand for Ensor’s painting. Scale ranges from intimate panel to engulfing canvas; moods range from absorbed stillness to public uproar; paint can describe a table setting, dissolve a sky, outline a grotesque or conceal an earlier idea.
How to Look at an Ensor Painting
Begin at the distance implied by the work’s scale. A large canvas may organize bodies, banners or furniture before individual faces become legible; a small panel may deliver its entire comic action at once. Then move closer and ask which marks describe an object and which remain conspicuously like paint. Look for exposed ground, changes in brush direction, black contours, thin passages beside raised accents, and places where varnish or later restoration may affect the colour.
Next, separate evidence from interpretation. An infrared image may disclose a carbon-based line, but its absence does not prove that Ensor made no preparatory sketch. A concealed form may demonstrate revision without explaining why it was rejected. Compare technical findings with the dated object record, physical support, exhibition history and what remains visible in ordinary light.[3] The detailed study of Mask and Crustaceans, for example, connects an infrared underdrawing, an added mask, a hidden vessel and distinct brush types without pretending that every compositional decision can be recovered.[7]
Researched works directory
This searchable evidence census was assembled from public museum records and a reproducible Wikidata snapshot. It is not a catalogue raisonné, a claim to complete oeuvre coverage, or a substitute for Xavier Tricot's printed catalogue, which was not consulted for this directory.
| Name | Date | Medium |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Decor (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1929 | |
| 10. Hélio (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1911–1929 | |
| 11. Murmuramis (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1912–1929 | |
| 12. Grimacet, Craco-Cigaret... (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1929 | |
| 13.-14. Popofigue & Germina (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1912–1929 | |
| 15. Puerilla & Pollen (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1912–1929 | |
| 16. Muzikanten II (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1929 | |
| 17. Vuurwerkboeket (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1929 | |
| 18. De schelpen (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1929 | |
| 19. Het Luminisme - het Kubisme - de Gravure (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1912–1929 | |
| 2. Brutonne (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1911–1929 | |
| 20. Spar - Huisje uit Neurenberg - Racket (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1911–1929 | |
| 21. Duivel - Houten soldaat - Pop (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1912–1929 | |
| 22. Cimbaalspelers (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1917–1929 | |
| 3. Grognelet (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1929 | |
| 3 studies van een dame met parasol | 1880 | Drawing |
| 4. Miamia (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1929 | |
| 5. De bedelares (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1929 | |
| 6. Fifrelin (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1929 | |
| 7. Muzikanten (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1911–1929 | |
| 8. Pituiton met de lange neus (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1929 | |
| 9. Corylopsis (uit: La Gamme d'Amour) | 1911–1929 | |
| A Colourist | 1880 | Painting |
| A field with a working man and woman | Date unknown | Drawing |
| A Gust of Wind at the Edge of the Forest (Coup de vent a la lisiere) | 1888 | |
| A l'aube | 1880 | Drawing |
| A Man and a Woman | Date unknown | Drawing |
| A Path in a Wood | 1879 | Painting |
| Aanbidding door de koningen | 1921 | |
| Aanstormend leger | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Aantekeningen van James Ensor | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Acacia | 1888 | |
| Academic study of a nude | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Accacia | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Adam and Eve expelled from Paradise | 1887 | Painting |
| Adoration des Bergers | 1888 | |
| Affiche van "Salon des Cent", Parijs | 1888–1898 | |
| Affiche van "Salon des Cent", Parijs | 1898 | |
| Affiche voor het carnaval van Oostende | 1931 | |
| After the storm | 1880 | Painting |
| Afternoon in Ostend | 1881 | Painting |
| Album Containing Drawings and Illustrated Letters | 1883 | Drawing |
| Algérienne à la cruche | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Alimentation doctrinaire | 1889 | |
| Anatomische studie en twee figuren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Anger | 1904 | |
| Anger (La colere) | 1904 | |
| Antiek pistool | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Antieke kop | 1870 | Drawing |
| Arabische ruiter door leeuw aangevallen | 1880 | Drawing |
| Arabische ruiter en paard | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Arabische ruiter in galop | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Arms and Hands | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Astonishment of the Mask Wouse | 1889 | Painting |
| Au conservatoire | 1902 | Painting |
| Auto-da-fe | 1893 | |
| Autoportrait auprès d'une lampe | 1886 | |
| Autumn Flowers | 1938 | Painting |
| Avarice | 1904 | |
| Avarice (L'avarice) | 1904 | |
| Azaleas | 1925 | Painting |
| Baby | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Baby en arm | 1870 | Drawing |
| Bacchanal | 1877 | Painting |
| Back of a Chair | 1880 | Painting |
| Badkoets, bruggetje en kleine marine | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Bal masqué à la Monnaie | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Ballet | 1921 | |
| Balletscène | 1900 | Drawing |
| Baptism of the Masks | 1891 | Painting |
| Baron James Ensor, his bad angel, his coat of arms | 1934 | Painting |
| Barques échouées | 1888 | |
| Bataille des éperons d'or | 1895 | |
| Bataille entre llion et tigre | 1880 | Drawing |
| Bateaux à vapeur, PK.MP.04898 | 1889 | |
| Bateaux à vapeur, PK.MP.04899 | 1889 | |
| Bathers (Curved and Wavy Lines) | 1916 | Painting |
| Bathing-hut | 1876 | Painting |
| Battle of the beggars Désir and Rissolé | 1888 | |
| Battle of the Beggars Desir and Rissole (Combat des pouilleux Desir et Rissole) | 1888 | |
| Battle of the Golden Spurs | 1890 | |
| Battle of the Golden Spurs | 1895 | |
| Battle of the Golden Spurs | 1897 | |
| Baviaan | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Beach at La Panne | 1904 | |
| Beached Boats | 1888 | |
| Bed met troonhemel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Bedkast | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Beeldje op console | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Beggars Receiving Alms at the Door of a House | 1880 | Drawing |
| Bejaarde man | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Belgium in the Nineteenth Century | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Belgium in the XIXth Century | 1889 | |
| Berceuse de mon ballet: La gamme d'amour | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Bergpad | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Bibelots | 1935 | Painting |
| Biblical Scene | 1877 | Painting |
| Bijbelse scènes, uitgeveegd | 1870 | Drawing |
| Biljartspelende geraamten | 1903 | Drawing |
| Bloem | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Bloemen en vlinders | 1889 | Painting |
| Blue Flask and Chicken | 1925 | Painting |
| Boats Aground | 1888 | |
| Boer met paardenspan en Marie Colombier | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Bolhoed en schoen | 1880 | Drawing |
| Bomen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Bootje en figuur | 1880 | Drawing |
| Bosgezicht in Groenendaal | 1888 | |
| Bosgezicht te Groenendaal | 1888 | |
| Bosje | 1888 | |
| Bosrand | 1878 | Drawing |
| Boulevard d'Iseghem, Ostende | 1889 | |
| Boulevard Van Iseghem, Ostend | 1889 | |
| Bouquet d'arbres, MPM.V.V.261.003 | 1888 | |
| Bouquet d'arbres (PK.MP.04890) | 1888 | |
| Bouquet d'arbres, PK.MP.04891 | 1888 | |
| Breakwater | 1887 | |
| Breiende vrouw en hondje | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Bronze pot with Apparitions | 1880 | Drawing |
| Bruggetje (?) | 1889 | Drawing |
| Bust | 1887 | |
| Buste | 1887 | |
| Buste (PK.MP.01223) | 1887 | |
| Cabbages | 1890 | Painting |
| Caesar's Denarius | 1888 | |
| Café-concert à Munich | 1880 | Drawing |
| Calvarie | 1921 | |
| Canal with Barges | 1881 | Painting |
| Candelabra and Vase | 1888 | |
| Candélabre et vase | 1888 | |
| Capture of a Strange Town | 1888 | |
| Carnet met tekeningen | 1880 | Drawing |
| Carnet met tekeningen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Carnival | 1930 | Painting |
| Carnival in Flanders | 1929 | Painting |
| Carnival in Flanders (Zürich) | 1927 | Painting |
| Carnival on the beach | 1887 | Painting |
| Chaloupes | 1888 | |
| Chaumiéres à Slykens | 1888 | |
| Chère morte | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Child with Doll | 1884 | Painting |
| Children at their Morning Toilet | 1886 | Painting |
| Chimaera | 1888 | |
| Chimère | 1888 | |
| Chinese vaas en figuren | 1880 | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie | 1885 | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, drie vogels | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, een demon | 1885–1886 | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, een krijger | 1885 | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, een man | 1885 | Painting |
| Chinoiserie, een ooievaar | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, een oude vrouw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, een roofvogel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, een vogel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, een vrouw | 1885 | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, een zittende man | 1885 | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, een zittende man in driekwart rugzicht | 1885 | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, tafereel | 1884 | Drawing |
| Chinoiserie, twee figuren | 1885 | Drawing |
| Chinoiseries | 1907 | Painting |
| Chinoiseries | 1920 | Painting |
| Chinoiseries with fans | 1880 | Painting |
| Christ agonisant tourmenté par les démons | 1895 | |
| Christ among the Beggards | 1895 | |
| Christ and the Beggars | 1895 | |
| Christ and the Beggars (Le Christ aux mendiants) | 1895 | |
| Christ Calming the Storm | 1886 | |
| Christ Calming The Tempest | 1886 | |
| Christ calming the water | 1891 | Painting |
| Christ calming the water | 1906 | Painting |
| Christ Descending into Hell | 1895 | |
| Christ Descending into Hell | Date unknown | |
| Christ Descending to Hell | 1895 | Drawing |
| Christ in Agony Tormented by Demons | 1895 | |
| Christ in Hell (Le Christ aux enfers) | 1895 | |
| Christ in the Boat | 1898 | |
| Christ insulted | 1886 | |
| Christ mocked | 1880 | Drawing |
| Christ Mocked | 1886 | |
| Christ Orchard | 1886 | |
| Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889 | 1888 | Painting |
| Christ's Entry into Jerusalem | 1885 | Drawing |
| Christ shown to the People | 1885 | Drawing |
| Christ shown to the People and Christ's Entry into Jerusalem | 1887 | Drawing |
| Christ Tormented by Demons | 1895 | |
| Christ Walking on Water | 1883 | Painting |
| Christ with the Lame | 1880 | Painting |
| Christus bedaart de storm | 1921 | |
| Christus bij de bedelaars | 1895 | |
| Christus daalt neer in de hel | 1895 | |
| Christus door duivels gekweld | 1895 | |
| Christus drijft de duivel uit het het lichaam aan een bezetene | 1921 | |
| Christus en de Engelen | 1921 | |
| Christus en de schriftgeleerden | 1921 | |
| Christus en Romeinse soldaten | 1886 | Drawing |
| Christus in de schuit | 1898 | |
| Christus op de knieën van zijn moeder | 1921 | |
| Christus tussen de moordenaars | 1921 | |
| Christus voor zijn rechters | 1921 | |
| Christus wandelt op de golven | 1921 | |
| Circassische ruiters | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Clams and crustaceans | 1889 | Painting |
| Clownish figures on a beach | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Clump of Trees | 1888 | |
| Colère | 1904 | |
| Combat des pouilleux Désir et Rissolé | 1888 | |
| Combat of the Rascals Désir and Rissolé | 1888 | |
| Combat of The Rascals Désir et Rissolé | 1888 | |
| Comical Repast (Banquet of the Starved) | 1917 | Painting |
| Contes d'Horace van Offel - Le diable au moulin | 1934 | |
| Copy after Honoré Daumier | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Cortège infernal | Date unknown | |
| Cottages | 1888 | |
| Couple in open landau | 1883 | Drawing |
| Cranes et masques | 1888 | |
| Croquis | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Crypte | 1888 | |
| Cymbalists | 1911 | |
| Daffodils, Lilacs and Violets | 1893 | Painting |
| Dahlias | 1932 | Painting |
| Daken | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Dame | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Dame aan cafétafel | 1880 | Drawing |
| Dame en meisje | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Dame en twee heren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Dance in the Clearing (from the series Les Opalines) | 1913 | |
| Daniel in the Lion's Den | 1880 | Drawing |
| Dansend paar | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Dansers en muzikanten | 1919 | Drawing |
| De aanbidding der herders | 1888 | |
| De afgunst | 1903–1904 | |
| De Amsterdamse lakenhandelaar Nicolaas van Bambeek | 1880 | Drawing |
| De baden van Oostende | 1891 | Drawing |
| De baden van Oostende | 1899 | |
| De bekoring van Christus | 1888 | |
| De bergrede [verso: Studie van drie staande en een zittende figuur] | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De besnijdenis | 1921 | |
| De bespotting van Christus | 1921 | |
| De boeteprocessie van Veurne | 1930 | Drawing |
| De boomgaard | 1886 | |
| De boomgaard | 1900 | |
| De briefschrijfster (Ensors zuster) | 1883 | Drawing |
| De brug van het bos te Oostende | 1889 | |
| De brug van Six | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De bruiloft van Kana | 1913 | Drawing |
| De cataclysmen | 1888 | |
| De componist Hector Berlioz | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De crypte | 1888 | |
| De daken van Oostende | 1900 | |
| De dood achtervolgt de mensenkudde | 1896 | |
| De duivels Dzitts en Hihanox leiden Christus naar de hel | 1895 | |
| De eerste stapjes | 1880 | Drawing |
| De engel des verderfs | 1889 | |
| De engelen vereeren Maria | 1921 | |
| De Franse politicus François Barbé Marbois | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De gefopte boeren | 1893 | Drawing |
| De gendarmes | 1888 | |
| De geseling | 1921 | |
| De gevilde | 1888 | |
| De gierigheid | 1903–1904 | |
| De gierigheid | 1904 | |
| De goede rechters | 1894 | |
| De gramschap | 1903 | |
| De gramschap | 1903–1904 | |
| De grap van de olifant | 1888 | Drawing |
| De gulzigheid | 1903–1904 | |
| De Heilige Geest verlicht de apostelen | 1921 | |
| De herstellende zieke | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De honden | 1894 | Drawing |
| De hoofdzonden gedomineerd door de Dood | 1903–1904 | |
| De hoogmoed | 1903–1904 | |
| De intocht van Christus te Brussel | 1898 | |
| De kathedraal | 1896 | |
| De kleine bron en andere figuren | 1880 | Drawing |
| De kleine schuiten | 1894 | |
| De knaap | 1880 | Drawing |
| De kokette dood (maskers) | 1922 | |
| De kruisafneming | 1921 | |
| De Kruisafneming | Date unknown | Painting |
| De kruisiging | 1921 | |
| De kus van Judas | 1921 | |
| De luiheid | 1902 | |
| De luiheid [De moeder van de kunstenaar] | 1888 | Drawing |
| De minnetuin | 1888 | |
| De molen van Mariakerke | 1889 | |
| De molenduivel | 1934 | |
| De Moord | 1888 | |
| De moord op de onnozele kinderen | 1921 | |
| De ontucht | 1888 | |
| De Oostendse Visser | 1900 | Drawing |
| De oude schelmen | 1895 | |
| De oudjes of de tijd | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De pakjesdragers | 1880 | Drawing |
| De pijproker, profiel en handen | 1880 | Drawing |
| De poel met populieren | 1889 | |
| De processie van Gistel | 1934 | |
| De putruimer | 1896 | |
| De regenten van het Oudemannenhuis in Haarlem. Een figuur | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De regenten van het Oudemannenhuis in Haarlem. Twee figuren | 1880 | Drawing |
| De Rembrandtplaats te Amsterdam | 1890 | Drawing |
| De Romeinse zegetocht | 1890 | |
| De roof der Sabijnse maagden | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De schaduw op het huis | 1933 | |
| De schilder Alfred William Finch - en studie met flessen | 1880 | Drawing |
| De slaapster | 1887 | |
| De Slag der Gulden Sporen | 1895 | |
| De slechte geneesheren | 1895 | |
| De soldenier | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De spelers | 1895 | |
| De terugkeer van de kalvarieberg | 1921 | |
| De tuin van liefde | Date unknown | Painting |
| De Turkse school is uit | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De Van Iseghemlaan in Oostende | 1889 | |
| De Van Iseghemlaan in Oostende, schrijvende man (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| De vechtersbazen | 1896 | |
| De vermenigvuldiging van de vissen | 1891 | |
| De verschrikkelijke boogschutter | 1888 | |
| De verzoeking van de Heilige Antonius | 1930 | Drawing |
| De visser | 1880 | Drawing |
| De vissers (De ellendelingen) | 1932 | |
| De waterdrinker | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De wonderbare visvangst | 1921 | |
| De wraak van Hop-Frog | 1898 | |
| De zieke vrouw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De zielenmissen voor B. de Haze | Date unknown | Drawing |
| De zilverling van Caesar | 1888 | |
| De zilverling van Caesar | 1921 | |
| De zoom van het bosje te Oostende | 1888 | |
| De zuster van Ensor aan het klavier | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Death and the Masks | 1897 | Painting |
| Death Chasing the Flock of Mortals | 1896 | |
| Death Dominating the Deadly Sins (Les Peches capitaux domines par la mort): front. | 1904 | |
| Delicacies | 1938 | Painting |
| Demons Teasing Me | 1895 | |
| Demons Teasing Me: Poster for the James Ensor Exhibition at the Salon des Cent in Paris | 1898 | |
| Demons Torment Me (Les Démons me turlupinant) | 1898 | |
| Der Tod und der Arzt beim Grabstein | 1880 | Drawing |
| Des filles de Sparte luttant | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Detail van afsluiting | 1900 | Drawing |
| Detail van een kapstok | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Deux régentes | 1880 | Drawing |
| Devils Thrashing Angels and Archangels | 1888 | |
| Devils Trashing Angels and Archangels | 1888 | |
| Diable rossant anges et archanges | 1888 | Drawing |
| Diables rossant anges et archanges | 1888 | |
| Diables rossant anges et archanges | 1889 | |
| Die Löwenjagd | 1880 | Drawing |
| Dienstbode (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Dining single man | 1880 | Drawing |
| Diploma voor het X° Landjuweel | 1933 | |
| Dish, bottles and candlestick | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Doctrinaire voeding | 1889 | |
| Doctrinal Nourishment | 1889 | |
| Dode monnik | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Don Quichotte | 1870 | Drawing |
| Don Quichotte | 1884 | Drawing |
| Don Quichotte | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Don Quichotte en 4 gezichten | 1870 | Drawing |
| Don Quichotte en hoofd | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Don Quichotte en paardekop | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Doodshoofden en Willy Finch in de duinen (recto) | 1888 | Drawing |
| Doordruk van 2709/33 | Date unknown | |
| Dorpskerk omringd door bomen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Double Self Portrait | 1900 | Drawing |
| Draaitrap en figuren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Dramatische scène | 1883 | Drawing |
| Drie figuren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Drie heren in gesprek | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Drie hollandse boerinnetjes | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Drie honden | 1880 | Drawing |
| Drie insekten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Drie klimmende heren en koppen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Drie koppen van wilde dieren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Drie varkenskoppen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Drie zeilboten en een windmolen | 1920 | Drawing |
| Duingras | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Duivels die mij sarren | 1895 | |
| Duivels die mij sarren | 1898 | |
| Duivels rossen engelen en aartsengelen af | 1888 | |
| Dunes | 1877 | Painting |
| Dunes | 1883 | Painting |
| Edelman | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Edge of the Forest in Ostend (La lisiere du petit bois, Ostende) | 1887 | |
| Edge of the Little Wood | 1888 | |
| Edge of the Little Wood Ostend | 1888 | |
| Een ongeval | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Een Zeeuws paardengespan | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Effect of Light | 1935 | Painting |
| Elias Magnus Fries, the Swedish Mycologist | 1886 | |
| Elisabeth Bas | 1880 | Drawing |
| Embleem | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Ensor and Leman discussing painting | 1890 | Painting |
| Ensor at his Easel | 1890 | Painting |
| Ensor at the Harmonium | 1933 | Painting |
| Ensor en Generaal Leman | 1890 | Drawing |
| Ensor en zijn muze | 1937 | Drawing |
| Ensors slapende moeder en figuren | 1880 | Drawing |
| Ensors slapende zuster en figuren | 1880 | Drawing |
| Envie | 1904 | |
| Envy | 1904 | |
| Envy (L'envie) | 1904 | |
| Ernest Rousseau | 1887 | |
| Estacade, PK.MP.04903 | 1887 | |
| Estacade, PK.MP.04904 | 1887 | |
| Execution by Garrote | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Extraordinary Musicians | 1888 | |
| Fall of the Rebel Angels | 1889 | Painting |
| Fans and Fabrics | 1881 | Painting |
| Fantasia | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Fantastische muzikanten | 1888 | |
| Fantastische vogel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Farm at Leffinghe | 1889 | |
| Feeding of the Five Thousand (La multiplication des poissons) | 1891 | |
| Femme assise vue de dos | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Femme et scène de taverne | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Ferme à Leffinge | 1889 | |
| Figuren | 1870 | Drawing |
| Figuren | 1880 | Drawing |
| Figuren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Figuren en hoofden | 1870 | Drawing |
| Figuren en ringkan (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Figuren en slijpsteen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Figuren en tekst | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Figuren uit de liefdestuin | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Figuren (verso) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Figures in Front of a Poster of La Gamme d’amour (after The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889) | 1925 | Painting |
| Figuur | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Figuur en fornuis met kookpotten | 1880 | Drawing |
| Figuur op de rug gezien | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Fish and Shells | 1895 | Painting |
| Fisher couple | 1874 | Painting |
| Fisherman falling in the water | 1880 | Drawing |
| Fisherman of Ostend | 1900 | |
| Fisherwoman | 1882 | Painting |
| Fishing-Boats | 1888 | |
| Flaying a Convict | 1888 | |
| Flemish Farm | 1888 | |
| Fles (recto) | 1888 | Drawing |
| Floral Still Life with Skulls | 1908 | Painting |
| Floretten | 1880 | Drawing |
| Flowers | 1892 | Painting |
| Flowers and blue vase | 1909 | Painting |
| Flowers and Chinese Vases | 1896 | Painting |
| Flowers and fruit | 1938 | Painting |
| Flowers and Masks | 1929 | Painting |
| Flowers and Vegetables | 1896 | Painting |
| Flowers in a Vase | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Footpath at Groenendael | 1888 | |
| Forest at Groenendael | 1888 | |
| Fort Napoleon | 1876 | Painting |
| Fort Wellington | 1876 | Painting |
| Fragment van een boom, stilleven op een barokke tafel, kruik en figuren (verso) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Fragment van raam met opgetrokken overgordijn | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Fragment van vaas | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Fridolin and Gragapança of Yperdamme | 1895 | |
| Fridolin and Grapapança of Yperdamme | 1895 | |
| Fridolin en Gragapança van Yperdamme | 1895 | |
| Fridolin et Gragapanca d'Yperdamme | 1895 | |
| Fries met monstertjes | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Frise, The Swedish Botanist | 1886 | |
| Frolics of Tenuous Puppets Transformed into Flowers (from the series Les Opalines) | 1913 | |
| Frontispice | 1921 | |
| Frontispice | Date unknown | |
| Frontispice (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| Gathering in a Park | 1936 | Painting |
| Gathering in a Park (Assemblee dans un parc) | 1891 | |
| Gebonden album "La Gamme d'Amour | 1912–1929 | |
| Gebonden album "Taferelen uit het leven van Christus | 1921 | |
| Geërgerde maskers | 1895 | |
| Gefolterde (?) | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Gehurkte man met petroleumbus | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Geïntrigeerde maskers | 1904 | |
| Genretafereel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Genretafereel en ornament | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Geraamte dat zich wil verwarmen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Geraamten die zich willen warmen | 1895 | |
| Gestrande schuiten | 1888 | |
| Gevallen Arabische ruiter met steigerend paard | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Gevel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Gezicht op de haven van Oostende | 1888 | |
| Gezicht op Mariakerke | 1900 | Drawing |
| Gezicht op Oostende in het oosten | 1888 | |
| Girl | 1880 | Drawing |
| Girl with Masks (Communion) | 1921 | Painting |
| Girl with upturned Nose | 1879 | Painting |
| Gluttony | 1904 | |
| Gluttony (La gourmandise) | 1904 | |
| Gordijnroede | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Gourmandise | 1904 | |
| Grand View of Mariakerke | 1887 | |
| Grande vue de Mariakerke | 1887 | |
| Grey Seascape | 1880 | Painting |
| Groep gemaskerde muzikanten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Groep hoge bomen | 1890 | Drawing |
| Groep ruiters | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Groep soldaten en burgers | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Groteske figuren | 1912 | Drawing |
| Groteske figuur | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Group of Trees | 1888 | |
| Hamlet | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Hand en degen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Hand met geweerloop | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Handen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Handen en ornament | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Handen en silhouetten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Hangklok en hoeden | 1880 | Drawing |
| Havengezicht | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Heer en dame aan tafel | 1912 | Drawing |
| Heer en kelner | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Heer en twee gehurkte figuurtjes | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Heer met hoge hoed | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Heilige Familie | 1921 | |
| Hemelvaart | 1921 | |
| Hengst | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Herbergscène met dansend boerenpaar (verso) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Het afscheid van Napoleon | 1896 | |
| Het balkon | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Het betoverd meubel | 1888 | |
| Het doopsel van Christus | 1921 | |
| Het fantastische bal | 1889 | |
| Het gesprek | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Het gevecht | 1896 | |
| Het grote dok in Oostende | 1888 | |
| Het laatste avondmaal | 1921 | |
| Het model | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Het onweer | 1889 | |
| Het spook | 1889 | |
| Het strand van De Panne | 1904 | |
| Hippogriff, Evil Spirits, Interior Elements | 1880 | Drawing |
| Hoed en silhouet | 1918 | Drawing |
| Hoek in het atelier met kachelvoet, kist en figuren | 1880 | Drawing |
| Hoeve | 1920 | Drawing |
| Hoeve te Leffinge | 1889 | |
| Hoevedaken | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Hollandse kast | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Hond | 1880 | Drawing |
| Hoofd van een fluitspelende vrouw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Hoofddekseltjes en boerinnetjes | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Hoofden | 1870 | Drawing |
| Hoofden | 1882 | Drawing |
| Hoofden | 1900 | Drawing |
| Hoofden | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Hoofden en stilleven | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Hooiopper met windmolen, boot en kleine hoeve | 1888 | Drawing |
| Hooiopper, roeiers in kano, windmolen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Hop-Frog | 1898 | |
| Hop-Frog's Revenge | 1885 | |
| Hop-Frog's Revenge | 1895 | |
| Hop-Frog's Revenge | 1898 | |
| Hop-Frog's Revenge | 1922 | |
| Horses and silhouettes | 1880 | Drawing |
| House on the Boulevard Anspach | 1888 | |
| Houses, a street lamp and a carriage | 1885 | Drawing |
| Houses on the Boulevard Anspach in Brussels(Maisons du boulevard Anspach a Bruxelles) | 1888 | |
| Huis met bomen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Huis met torenerker | 1890 | Drawing |
| Huis, narren, portret | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Huis op de Anspachlaan | 1888 | |
| Huisjes in Mariakerke | 1888 | |
| Huizen en peervormig torentje | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Hutten | 1888 | |
| I. L'Annonciation | Date unknown | |
| I. Maria-boodschap (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| Icône - Portrait of Eugène Demolder | 1893 | Painting |
| II. De aanbidding der wijzen (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| II. L'Adoration des Mages | Date unknown | |
| III. De moord op de onnozele kinderen (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| III. Le Massacre des Innocents | Date unknown | |
| In de loge | Date unknown | Drawing |
| In the Dunes | 1883 | Painting |
| Inneming van een vreemde stad | 1888 | |
| Insectes singuliers | 1888 | |
| Insectes singuliers | Date unknown | |
| insects | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Interieur met open haard | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Intrede in Jeruzalem | 1921 | |
| Iston, Pouffamatus, Cracozie and Transmouffe, famous Persian physicians, examining the Stool of Darius | 1886 | |
| Iston, Pouffamatus, Cracozie and Transmouffe, famous Persian physicians, examining the Stool of Darius after the battle of Arbela | 1886 | |
| Iston, Pouffamatus, Cracozie and Transmouffe, Famous Persian Physicians, Examining the Stools of King Darius after the Battle of Arbela | 1886 | |
| Iston Pouffamatus Cracozie Transmouff célèbres medecins persans examinant les selles du Roi Darius après la bataille d'Arbelles | 1886 | |
| Iston, Pouffamatus... examining the Stool fo Darius | 1886 | |
| IV. De vlucht naar Egypte (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| IV. La Fuite en Egypte | Date unknown | |
| IX. De zilverling van Caesar (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| IX. Le denier de César | Date unknown | |
| Jardin d'amour | 1888 | |
| Jardin d'amour | 1925 | Painting |
| Jardin d'amour (PK.MP.01200) | 1888 | |
| Joan of Arc | 1880 | Drawing |
| Jonge Picardiërs bij een oefening met lansen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Jonge vrouw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Jongen met zwaard | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Judit en Holofernes | 1879 | Painting |
| Kaasklok en lissen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kachel en figuren (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Karnavalfiguurtjes | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kerkje van Tholen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kind op rug gezien | 1880 | Drawing |
| King Pest | 1880 | Drawing |
| King Pest | 1895 | |
| Klassiek academiemodel | 1878 | Drawing |
| Klein gezicht op Mariakerke | 1887 | |
| Klein gezicht op Mariakerke | 1900 | |
| Klein meisje en ornament | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kleine vreemdsoortige figuren | 1888 | |
| Koets | 1890 | Drawing |
| Koets en twee heren | 1880 | Drawing |
| Koffertje en zwaard | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Koffiekan | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Koning Pest | 1895 | |
| Koningin Parysatis | 1890 | |
| Kop en drie honden | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kop in vooraanzicht en in profiel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kop, schoteltje en figuren (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Köpfe | 1880 | Drawing |
| Kopie | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kopie naar Goya | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kopie naar Grévin | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kopie naar Salvator Rosa | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kopje en afdruk | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Krabbel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Krabbel: militairen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Krabbel van marine | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Krabbel van ornament? | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Krabbels met houtskool | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kroegtafereel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Kroonkandelaar en vaas | 1888 | |
| Kruiwagen en figuren (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Kruiwagen, figuren en schets | 1880 | Drawing |
| L'Acacia | 1888 | |
| L'Amour Moissonneur | Date unknown | Drawing |
| L'ange exterminateur | 1889 | |
| L'archer terrible | 1888 | |
| L'assassinat | 1888 | |
| L'écorché | 1888 | |
| L'entrée du Christ à Bruxelles en 1889 | 1889 | |
| L'Entrée du Christ à Bruxelles en 1889 | 1898 | |
| L'Hôtel de ville de Bruxelles | 1885 | Painting |
| L'orage | 1889 | |
| La Blague de l'éléphant | 1888 | |
| La Cathédrale | 1860 | |
| La Cathédrale | 1886 | |
| La dormeuse (rare) | 1887 | |
| La gamme d'amour | 1926 | Painting |
| La Lisiere du bois d'Ostende | 1888 | |
| La Madeleine | 1887 | |
| La mort poursuivant le troupeau des humains | 1896 | |
| La multiplication des poissons | 1891 | |
| La musique Rue de Flandre à Ostende | 1890 | |
| La prise d'une ville étrange | 1888 | |
| La reine Parysatis écorchant un eunuque | 1900 | |
| La Syrene | Date unknown | Drawing |
| La Tentation du Christ | 1888 | |
| La vengeance de Hop-Frog | 1898 | |
| Laat de kleinen tot mij komen | 1921 | |
| Lady Godiva | 1933 | |
| Lady Singing | 1880 | Drawing |
| Landelijke brug | 1889 | |
| Landscape with waterfalls | 1875 | Painting |
| Landschap met kerktoren en windmolen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Landschap met kruis | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Landschap met molen en laag wolkendek | 1890 | Drawing |
| Landschapsfragment met waterrad en twee figuren (verso) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Lantaarn en kruiwagen | 1870 | Drawing |
| Large Basin of Ostend Harbor (Le Grand Bassin, Ostende) | 1888 | |
| Large seascape - Sunset | 1885 | Painting |
| Large View of Mariakerke | 1887 | |
| Large View of Mariakerke (Grande vue de Mariakerke) | 1887 | |
| Laute spielender Engel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Le Bal fantastique | 1889 | |
| Le Ballet Féerique (Le Jardin D'Amour) | 1925 | Painting |
| Le bassin d' Ostende | 1888 | |
| Le Botaniste Scandinave Frise | 1886 | |
| Le Boulevard van Iseghem, Ostende | 1889 | |
| Le Cathédrale | 1886 | |
| Le Christ apaisant la tempète | 1886 | |
| Le Christ aux Mendiants | 1895 | |
| Le Christ dans la barque | 1898 | |
| Le Christ descendant aux enfers | 1895 | |
| Le Christ montré au peuple | 1886 | |
| Le Christ tourmenté (Christ Tormented) | 1888 | Painting |
| Le cortège infernal | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Le coup de vent à la lisière | 1888 | |
| Le Denier de César | 1888 | |
| Le Fantôme | 1889 | |
| Le feu d'artifice (Fireworks) | 1887 | Painting |
| Le grand bassin d' Ostende | 1888 | |
| Le Meuble hanté | 1888 | |
| Le moulin de Slykens (PK.MP.01186) | 1891 | |
| Le moulin de Slykens (PK.MP.01187) | 1891 | |
| Le Pisseur | 1887 | |
| Le Pont du Bois à Ostende | 1889 | |
| Le Réverbère | 1888 | |
| Le Roi Albert et son temps | 1932 | |
| Le Roi peste | 1895 | |
| Le verger | 1886 | |
| Leeuw en schildpad | 1880 | Drawing |
| Leeuw met haas | 1880 | Drawing |
| Leeuwin die prooi verscheurt | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Les adieux de Napoleon | 1897 | |
| Les Bains à Ostende | 1899 | |
| Les barques | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Les bons juges | 1894 | |
| Les cataclysmes, Vision devançant le futurisme | 1888 | |
| Les Cuisiniers dangereux | 1896 | Drawing |
| Les Demons me turlupinant | 1895 | |
| Les Diables Dzitts et Hihahox menant le Christ aux enfers | 1895 | |
| Les étoiles au cimetière | 1888 | |
| Les gendarmes | 1888 | |
| Les Insèctes Singuliers | 1888 | |
| Les masques | 1922 | |
| Les Masques et la Mort | 1898 | Painting |
| Les Mauvais médécins | 1895 | |
| Les patineurs | 1889 | |
| Les petites barques | 1894 | |
| Les peupliers | 1889 | |
| Les toits à Ostende | 1903 | |
| Les Vieux Polissons | 1895 | |
| Lezende man | 1880 | Drawing |
| Lezende man en hoofden | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Liggende leeuw | 1880 | Drawing |
| Liggende vrouw | 1908 | Drawing |
| Light stripped of leaves | 1936 | Painting |
| Lion | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Little Houses at Mariakerke | 1888 | |
| Little View of Mariakerke | 1887 | |
| Little View of Mariakerke | 1900 | |
| Lust | 1888 | |
| Lust (La luxure) | 1888 | |
| Luxure | 1888 | |
| Ma tante chérie | Date unknown | Painting |
| Madam Gratiot | 1880 | Drawing |
| Man, drinkglas en figuurtjes | 1881 | Drawing |
| Man en boot, stoel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Man en plant | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Man en twee gehurkte figuurtjes | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Man in profiel | 1917 | Drawing |
| Man met baard | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Man met hoed | 1880 | Drawing |
| Man met pet | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Man met verfpot | 1880 | Drawing |
| Man of Sorrows | 1891 | Painting |
| Man steunend op een stok | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Mand met vruchten | 1935 | Drawing |
| Mannelijke naakten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Manshoofd in profiel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Marche des Rotariens Ostendais | 1923 | |
| Maria Boodschap | 1921 | |
| Marine met duin en zeilboten | 1917 | Drawing |
| marine / zeegezicht | 1910 | Painting |
| Marionet en schouwstijl | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Mars van de Oostendse Rotariërs | 1922–1923 | |
| Mars van de Oostendse Rotariërs | 1923 | |
| Mask and Crustaceans | 1891 | Painting |
| Masked woman | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Masks | 1925 | Painting |
| Masks | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Masks Confronting Death | 1888 | Painting |
| Masques Scandalisés | 1895 | |
| Materiaalstudie | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Mazurka Caprice de James Ensor | Date unknown | Artwork |
| Meadow Flowers | 1883 | Painting |
| Meeting in a Park | 1891 | |
| Meisje | 1885 | Drawing |
| Meisje met wipneus (?) en Arondskelken | 1880 | Drawing |
| Meisje met witte voorschoot | 1880 | Drawing |
| Mejuffrouw Zucchi van de 'Eden' | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Mensenmenigte | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Menu Charles Vos | 1896 | |
| Menu for Charles Vos | 1896 | |
| Menu for Ernest Rousseau | 1896 | |
| Menu pour Charles Vos | 1896 | |
| Menu pour Ernest Rousseau, PK.MP.04906 | 1896 | |
| Menu pour Ernest Rousseau, PK.MP.04907 | 1896 | |
| Mery Laurent met mopshond | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Mijn dode moeder | 1915 | Drawing |
| Mijn dode moeder II | 1915 | Drawing |
| Mijn dode moeder III | 1915 | Drawing |
| Mijn dode moeder IV | 1915 | Drawing |
| Mijn dode tante | 1916 | Drawing |
| Mijn dode vader | 1888 | |
| Mijn handen | 1928 | Drawing |
| Mijn moeder bij naaiwerk (verso) | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Mijn portret | 1905 | Drawing |
| Mijn portret in 1960 | 1888 | |
| Mijn portret met doodshoofd | 1889 | |
| Mijn tante | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Mijn zuster en schets van een schilderij | 1880 | Drawing |
| Militair te paard, en stoel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Militairen | 1880 | Drawing |
| Militairen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Militairen en silhouetten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Minnetuin | 1888 | |
| Mitche | 1880 | Drawing |
| Mitche | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Mitche Ensor | 1885 | Drawing |
| Model of a ship | 1885 | Drawing |
| Moeder van Ensor | 1870 | Drawing |
| Moeder van Ensor | 1880 | Drawing |
| Moeder van Ensor | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Moeder van Ensor en silhouetten | 1880 | Drawing |
| Moeder van Ensor - voet en handen | 1880 | Drawing |
| Molen te Slykens | 1891 | |
| Mon père mort | 1888 | |
| Mon père mort, PK.MP.04915 | 1888 | |
| Mon père mort, PK.MP.04916 | 1888 | |
| Mon Portrait en 1960 | 1888 | |
| Monkey | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Monniken bij het balspel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Monotype | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Monsters and Caricatures | 1888 | Drawing |
| Mordecai's Triumph | 1880 | Drawing |
| Moses and the Birds | 1924 | Painting |
| Mother of Rembrandt and other Figures | 1880 | Drawing |
| moulin: Slykens | 1891 | |
| Mountain Landscape | 1890 | Drawing |
| Mountain Landscape | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Music in the Vlaanderenstraat | 1891 | Painting |
| Music-making group | 1877 | Drawing |
| Music on the Rue de Flandres | 1890 | |
| Musiciens fantasques | 1888 | |
| Muziek in de Vlaanderenstraat in Oostende | 1890 | |
| My Dead Father | 1888 | |
| My Favorite Room | 1892 | Painting |
| My Portrait as a Skeleton | 1889 | |
| My Portrait in 1960 | 1888 | |
| My Skeletized Portrait | 1889 | |
| My Sleeping Aunt Dreaming of Monsters | 1888 | Drawing |
| Mythologische scène | 1877 | Drawing |
| Naaiende handen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Naaiwerk (De handen) | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Naakten en harlekijnen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Naked boy | 1878 | Painting |
| Napoleon's Farewell | 1897 | |
| Narren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Nature morte au canard | 1910 | Painting |
| Neptunus | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Neushoorn | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Nimfen | 1923 | Drawing |
| Odalisk | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Old Lady with Masks | 1889 | Painting |
| Old man | 1878 | Painting |
| Old Man with Flowing Beard | 1880 | Drawing |
| Oostende, gezicht vanuit het station | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Oostendse verhalen door Theo Hannon | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Oostendse visser | 1900 | |
| Oosters paar | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Op de koerstribune | 1880 | Drawing |
| Open haard | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Openstaand raam met loodglas | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Operascène | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Opgebonden overgordijn | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Ophelia | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Orchard (Le Verger) | 1886 | |
| Orgueil | 1904 | |
| Ornament - Head of a monster | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Ornament - kop | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Ornament - Leeuwenkop | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Ornament - Lion's head | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Ostend Harbour | 1900 | Painting |
| Oude vrouw en kind | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Paar | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Paar in interieur | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Paar voor rustbed | 1880 | Drawing |
| Paard en silhouetten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Paarden en hoek van zitbank | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Paarden en tekst | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Paarden en vrouw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Paarden en zittende man | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Paarden, kar en werkman | 1880 | Drawing |
| Paresse | 1902 | |
| Pear, grapes and nuts | 1889 | Painting |
| Péchés capitaux dominés par la mort | 1904 | |
| Pécheur d'Ostende, PK.MP.04918 | 1900 | |
| Pécheur d'Ostende, PK.MP.04919 | 1900 | |
| Pécheur d'Ostende, PK.MP.04920 | 1900 | |
| Peculiar Insects | 1888 | |
| Pen and inkpot on a glass dish | 1885 | Drawing |
| Peonies and Poppies | 1883 | Painting |
| Perplexed Masks | 1904 | |
| Peste dessous, peste dessus, peste partout! | 1904 | |
| Petite vue de Mariakerke | 1887 | |
| Petite vue de Mariakerke | 1900 | |
| Petite vue de Mariakerke (PK.MP.04893) | 1887 | |
| Pierrot and Skeleton in a Yellow Robe | 1893 | Painting |
| Pierrot and skeletons | 1906 | Painting |
| Pierrot's despair | 1910 | Painting |
| Pigs | 1875 | Painting |
| Pink Dancer (from the series Les Opalines) | 1913 | |
| Plage de La Panne | 1904 | |
| Plage de La Panne (PK.MP.04897) | 1904 | |
| Plague here, Plague there, Plague everywhere | 1888 | Drawing |
| Poezen en raam | 1870 | Drawing |
| Pollution Under, Pollution over, Pollution All Around | 1904 | |
| Popje | 1886 | Drawing |
| Porcelaines et Masques | 1929 | Painting |
| Portrait d'Ernest Rousseau | 1887 | |
| Portrait D'Hector Denis | 1890 | |
| Portrait de Augusta Bogaerts (La Sirene) | Date unknown | Painting |
| Portrait du professeur Ernest Rousseau | 1887 | |
| Portrait of a Boy | 1906 | Painting |
| Portrait of a Man | 1880 | Drawing |
| Portrait of a Man | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Portrait of Emile Verhaeren | 1890 | Painting |
| Portrait of Hector Denis | 1890 | |
| Portrait of René Coens | 1937 | Drawing |
| Portrait of the Artist Henry de Groux | 1883 | Drawing |
| Portrait of the Artist's Father | 1881 | Painting |
| Portrait of the Artist's Mother | 1882 | Painting |
| Portrait of the Artist Willy Finch | 1883 | Drawing |
| Portrait of the Artist’s Mother | 1885 | Painting |
| Portrait of Willy Finch | 1882 | Painting |
| Portret van Alexandra Daveluy | 1927 | Painting |
| Portret van Dario de Regoyos schrijvende | 1880 | Drawing |
| Portret van een vrouw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Portret van Ernest Rousseau | 1887 | Drawing |
| Portret van Hector Denis | 1890 | |
| Portret van mijn moeder en figuren | 1880 | Drawing |
| Portret van Willy Finch | 1888 | Drawing |
| Portret van Willy Finch op de rug | 1880 | Drawing |
| Poster of La Plume | 1922 | |
| Poster of the Carnival at Ostend | 1931 | |
| Pouilleux indisposé se chauffant | 1895 | |
| Pride | 1904 | |
| Pride (L'orgueil) | 1904 | |
| Programma van de opvoering van het ballet "La Gamme d'Amour" - Schouwburg Oostende 17 december 1932 | 1932 | |
| Pronkkast en figuren | 1880 | Drawing |
| Publicitaire sluitzegel voor het carnaval van Oostende | 1931 | |
| Puzzled Masks | 1904 | |
| Queen Parysatis | 1899 | |
| Regentessen van het Oudemannenhuis in Haarlem. Een figuur | 1880 | Drawing |
| Regentessen van het Oudemannenhuis in Haarlem. Handen | 1880 | Drawing |
| Regentessen van het Oudemannenhuis in Haarlem. Mouw van een regentes | 1880 | Drawing |
| Regentessen van het Oudemannenhuis in Haarlem. Twee paar handen | 1880 | Drawing |
| Rembrandt's Self Portrait | 1880 | Drawing |
| Rendez notre ancienne face fors les chers faux nez burlesques | 1923 | Drawing |
| René Lyr | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Reptiel en dierenkopje | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Return from Calvary | 1877 | Painting |
| Return of the prodigal son | 1877 | Painting |
| Reverences of Puppets before Cydalise (from the series Les Opalines) | 1913 | |
| Rocaillemotief (verso) | 1888 | Drawing |
| Roi Peste | 1895 | |
| Roman Triumph | 1889 | |
| Roman Victory | 1889 | |
| Roofs at Ostend | 1903 | |
| Rooftops of Ostend | 1885 | Painting |
| Rue du Bon Secours, Brussels | 1887 | |
| Rue du Bon Secrous, Brussels | 1887 | |
| Ruiter | 1870 | Drawing |
| Ruiter van de lichte artillerie | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Russian Music | 1881 | Painting |
| Rustend paar | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Rustend vrouwelijk naakt | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Rustende vrouw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Rustic Bridge | 1889 | |
| Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows | 1880 | Drawing |
| Satan and the Fantastic Legions Tormenting the Crucified (The Sad and Broken) (recto) | 1886 | Drawing |
| Sater | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Satire of Laurent Tailhade | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Scandalized Masks | 1895 | |
| Schedels en maskers | 1888 | |
| Schets naar oude meester en figuren (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Schetsblad met Christusbeeld | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Schetsblad met ruiters | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Schetsblad met staande man | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Schetsbladen op een blad | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Schetsboek | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Schetsen | 1880 | Drawing |
| Schetsen van figuren en paarden (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Schetsen van handen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Schildpad | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Schouw en handen | 1887 | Drawing |
| Schrijvende man | 1880 | Drawing |
| Schrijvende of lezende man | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Schrijvende vrouw op rug gezien | 1882 | Drawing |
| Seascape | 1880 | Painting |
| Seashells | 1896 | Painting |
| Seashells | 1936 | Painting |
| Seashells and Chinoiseries | 1882 | Painting |
| Seaside | 1923 | Painting |
| Seated Boy | 1880 | Drawing |
| Seated Man | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Seated Woman | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Selbstporträt umringt von Köpfen | 1900 | Drawing |
| Self Portrait | 1870 | Drawing |
| Self Portrait | 1880 | Drawing |
| Self-Portrait | 1885 | Drawing |
| Self-Portrait | 1886 | |
| Self Portrait | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Self-portrait with flowered hat | c. 1885–1888 (inscribed 1883) | Painting |
| Self-Portrait (with lamp) | 1886 | |
| Self-Portrait with Lamp (In the Dark) | 1886 | Drawing |
| Self-portrait with masks | 1899 | Painting |
| Self-Portrait with Masks | 1937 | Painting |
| Series of Masks | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Sick Wretch Warming Himself | 1895 | |
| Sierpot en paard | 1880 | Drawing |
| Silhouette of a Woman, Mitche and a Lock | 1885 | Drawing |
| Silhouetten | 1880 | Drawing |
| Silhouetten | 1917 | Drawing |
| Silhouetten | 1918 | Drawing |
| Silhouetten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Silhouetten en 2 figuren op de rug gezien | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Silhouetten en hoofden | 1880 | Drawing |
| Silhouetten en kar | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Silhouettes | 1880 | Drawing |
| Silhouettes and grotesque figures | 1880 | Drawing |
| Silhouettes Studies of walking figures | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Skelet bekijkt chinoiserieën | 1910 | Painting |
| Skeleton Looking at Chinoiseries | 1885 | Painting |
| Skeleton Painter in his Studio | 1896 | Painting |
| Skeletons fighting over a Hanged Man | 1891 | Painting |
| Skeletons Fighting over a Pickled Herring | 1891 | Painting |
| Skeletons in Fancy Dress | 1898 | Painting |
| Skeletons in the Studio | 1900 | Painting |
| Skeletons seeking warmth | Date unknown | |
| Skeletons Trying to Warm Themselves (Taevernier: Warmth Seeking Skeletons) | 1895 | |
| Skeletons Warming Themselves | 1889 | Painting |
| Skulls and Masks | 1888 | |
| Slapend meisje | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Slapende en wakende vrouw | 1880 | Drawing |
| Slapende honden | 1880 | Drawing |
| Slapende moeder van Ensor | 1915 | Drawing |
| Slapende oude vrouw | 1880 | Drawing |
| Slapende oude vrouw | 1895 | Drawing |
| Slapende oude vrouw | 1897 | Drawing |
| Slapende oude vrouw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Slapende vrouw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Sloepen | 1888 | |
| Sloops | 1890 | Painting |
| Sloth | 1902 | |
| Sloth | 1904 | |
| Sloth (La paresse) | 1902 | |
| Small Bizarre Figures | 1888 | |
| Small House at Mariakerke | 1888 | |
| Small View of Mariakerke | 1900 | |
| Smid en kandelaar | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Smidse met twee figuren (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Smile of Carnations, Caress of Daisies | 1936 | Painting |
| Snuisterijen en figuren | 1883 | Drawing |
| Soldaat en monnik | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Soldatentrupp | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Soldier and horse | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Sorciers dans la bourrasque | 1888 | |
| Sous-bois à Groenendael | 1888 | |
| Spijskaart voor Charles Vos | 1896 | |
| Spitting man | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Spookgestalte | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Squall at the Edge of the Wood | 1888 | |
| Square Rembrandt, Amsterdam graphic | Date unknown | |
| Squelettes voulant se chauffer | 1895 | |
| Squelettes voulant se chauffer | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Staande en zittende zigeunersvrouw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Staande figuur op de rug gezien | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Stadhuis van Oudenaarde | 1888 | |
| Stand of Trees (Bouquet d'arbres) | 1888 | |
| Stapel boeken | 1880 | Drawing |
| Steam-Boats | 1888–1889 | |
| Steamboats | 1889 | |
| Steamships | 1889 | |
| Steekspel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Sterrenhemel boven het kerkhof | 1888 | |
| Still-life (Fabrics) | 1880 | Painting |
| Still Life in the Studio | 1889 | Painting |
| Still life with a cabbage | 1921 | Painting |
| Still Life with Blue Jar | 1890 | Painting |
| Still Life with Blue Pitcher | 1891 | Painting |
| Still Life with chinoiseries | 1880 | Painting |
| Still Life with Chinoiseries | 1906 | Painting |
| Still-life with duck | 1880 | Painting |
| Still Life with Fish and Shells | 1898 | Painting |
| Still Life with Geranium | 1882 | Painting |
| Still-life with Masks | 1896 | Painting |
| Still Life with Oysters | 1882 | Painting |
| Still Life with Sea Shells | 1923 | Painting |
| Still Life with Tulips and Roses | 1882 | Painting |
| Stilleven met blauwe chinoiserieën | Date unknown | Painting |
| Stilleven met flessen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Stilleven met groenten | 1882 | Painting |
| Stilleven met kaars | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Stilleven met sater | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Stilleven met visserslamp | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Stilleven, spiegel, zittende figuur | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Stillleben mit blauer Flasche und gerupftem Huhn - 4420 - Österreichische Galerie Belvedere | 1910 | Painting |
| Storm at the Edge of the Wood | 1888 | |
| Straat in Oostende (?) | 1895 | Drawing |
| Straat naast het kanaal | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Straatlantaarn | 1888 | |
| Strand- en zeegenoegens | 1890 | Drawing |
| Strand von Ostende - 2122 - Kunsthaus Zürich | 1915 | Painting |
| Strandtent en silhouetten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Streaming water | 1913 | Drawing |
| Studie | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Studie met flessen en koppen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Studie van badende vrouwen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Studie van dame met parasol | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Studie van drie staande en een zittende figuur [recto: De bergrede] | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Studie van een badende vrouw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Studie van een wild dier | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Studie van handen en hoofden | 1880 | Drawing |
| Studie van houdingen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Studie van kerstgroepen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Studie van kopprofielen en van handen | 1880 | Drawing |
| Studieblad van de leeuwenjacht | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Studies for a Portrait of a Woman | 1885 | Drawing |
| Studies van voorovergebogen hoofd | 1880 | Drawing |
| Sunrise | 1880 | Drawing |
| Tafel, kruiken, roemer, figuren (verso) | 1888 | Drawing |
| Tafel met leeuwenkoppen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Taferelen uit het leven van Christus | 1921 | |
| Taskin als wonderdokter in Hoffmann's vertellingen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Tekeningen uit de collectie van het KMSKA | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Tekst | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Tekst en hoofd van een vrouw met bril en figuren (verso) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Tenhemelopneming van Maria | 1921 | |
| Terugkeer van de berenjacht in het steentijdperk | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The absinthe drinker | 1880 | Drawing |
| The Acacia (L'acacia) | 1888 | |
| The Adoration of the Shepherds | 1887 | Painting |
| The Adoration of the Shepherds | 1888 | |
| The Adoration of the Shepherds (The Joyful) | 1886 | Drawing |
| The Afternoon Nap (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| The artist's aunt | 1880 | Drawing |
| The artist's father in death | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The artist's mother | 1880 | Drawing |
| The Artist's Mother in Death | 1915 | Painting |
| The artist's sister Mitche and figure | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Artist's Studio | 1930 | Painting |
| The Assassination | 1888 | |
| The Assassination | 1890 | Painting |
| The Bad Doctors | 1892 | Painting |
| The Bad Doctors | 1895 | |
| The Bad Doctors graphic | 1895 | |
| The Baths at Ostend | 1890 | Painting |
| The Baths at Ostend | 1899 | |
| The Baths at Ostende | 1899 | |
| The Battle of the Golden Spurs | 1891 | Drawing |
| The bird-garden | 1936 | Painting |
| The Bourgeois Salon | 1881 | Painting |
| The Bourgeois Salon II | 1911 | Painting |
| The Breakwater | 1878 | Painting |
| The Bridge in the Wood at Ostend | 1889 | |
| The Bridge in the Woods, Ostend (Le pont du bois a Ostende) | 1889 | |
| The cabbage | 1880 | Painting |
| The Canal | 1921 | Painting |
| The Cataclysms | 1888 | |
| The Cathedral | 1886 | |
| The Cathedral | 1886–1896 | |
| The Cathedral (La cathedrale) | 1886 | |
| The Cathedral (The Troopers Kès and Pruta Entering the City of Bise) | 1892 | Drawing |
| The Cemetery | 1888 | |
| The City Hall in Audenarde (L'hotel de ville d'Audenarde) | 1888 | |
| The Coach | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Combat | 1896 | |
| The Convalescent | 1880 | Painting |
| The Conversation | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Crypt | 1888 | |
| The cuirassiers of Waterloo | 1891 | Drawing |
| The Dangerous Cooks | 1896 | Painting |
| The Dead Cockerel | 1894 | Painting |
| The Dead Soldier | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Deadly Sins Dominated by Death | 1904 | |
| The Death of the Holy Virgin | 1880 | Drawing |
| The Destroying Angel | 1889 | |
| The Devil and the Windmill | 1934 | |
| The Devils Dzitts and Hihahox, Commanded by Crazon Riding a Furious Cat, Leading Christ to Hell | 1886 | Drawing |
| The Devils Dzitts and Hihahox, Commanded by Crazon Riding a Furious Cat, Leading Christ to Hell | 1895 | |
| The Devils Dzitts and Hihanox Leading Christ into Hell | 1895 | |
| The Devils Dzitts and Hihanox Leading Christ to Hell | 1895 | |
| The dissolute mercenaries | 1892 | Drawing |
| The edge of the wood in Ostend | 1886 | Painting |
| The Elephant's Joke | 1888 | |
| The Entry of Christ into Brussels | 1895 | |
| The Entry of Christ into Brussels | 1898 | |
| The Entry of Christ into Brussels (L'entree du Christ a Bruxelles) | 1898 | |
| The Exterminating Angel | 1889 | |
| The Exterminating Angel (L'ange exterminateur) | 1889 | |
| The Fantastic Ball | 1889 | |
| The Fantastic Musicians | 1888 | |
| The Fight | 1896 | |
| The Fight | 1925 | Painting |
| The Flagellation | 1886 | |
| The Flaying | 1888 | |
| The fool | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Gamblers | 1895 | |
| The Gamblers | 1896 | |
| The garden at café Tivoli in Ostend | 1876 | Painting |
| The Garden of Love | 1888 | |
| The Garden of Love | 1921 | Painting |
| The Garden of Love (1891) | 1891 | Painting |
| The Garden of Love (Toyota) | 1888 | Painting |
| The Garden of the Rousseau Family | 1885 | Painting |
| The Gendarmes | 1888 | |
| The gendarmes | 1892 | Painting |
| The Ghost | 1889 | |
| The Goldsmith Jan Lutma | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Good Judges | 1894 | |
| The Grotesque Musicians | 1888 | |
| The Guitarist | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Hands of Elisabeth Bas | 1880 | Drawing |
| The haunted cabinet | 1888 | |
| The Haunted Furniture | 1888 | |
| The Hunter | 1888 | |
| The Ice Skaters (Les Patineurs) | 1889 | |
| The infernal cortege | 1880 | |
| The Infernal Cortege | 1887 | |
| The Intrigue | 1890 | Painting |
| The Jolly Hunters | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Journalist Paul de Cassagnac | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The lady in blue | 1881 | Painting |
| The Lady in Distress | 1882 | Painting |
| The Lady with Fan | 1880 | Painting |
| The Lady with Red Parasol | 1880 | Painting |
| The lampions | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Lamplighter | 1880 | Painting |
| The Lamplighter | 1886 | Drawing |
| The language of flowers | 1938 | Painting |
| The Lighthouse at Ostend | 1885 | Painting |
| The Magdalene | 1887 | |
| The Main Dock of Ostend | 1888 | |
| The Main Dock, Ostend | 1888 | |
| The Marquise | 1911 | Painting |
| The Marsh | 1880 | Painting |
| The Mask's Wedding | 1926 | Painting |
| The Master Painter | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Melancholy Fishwives | 1892 | Painting |
| The Multiplication of the Fishes | 1891 | |
| The Murder | 1888 | |
| The Music in the rue de Flandre, Ostend | 1890 | |
| The Mystical Death of a Divine | 1880 | Drawing |
| The Old Rascals | 1895 | |
| The Old ... Raskals | 1895 | |
| The Orchard | 1886 | |
| The Oyster Eater | 1882 | Painting |
| The Painter Alfred William Finch | 1880 | Painting |
| The Painter Edouard Manet | 1880 | Drawing |
| The Painter Edouard Manet | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Painter Eugène Delacroix | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Painter Gustave Courbet | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Painter Jan Asselijn or "Crabbetje | 1880 | Drawing |
| The Painter Jean François Millet | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Pancake Woman | 1880 | Drawing |
| The Parasol | 1880 | Painting |
| The piano | 1880 | Drawing |
| The Pisser | 1886 | |
| The Pisser | 1887 | |
| The Playwright Emile Augier | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Poet Jean Richepin | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Pool of the Poplars | 1889 | |
| The Pool of the Poplars graphic | 1889 | |
| The Port of Ostend (Vue du port d'Ostende) | 1888 | |
| The Procession at Gistel | 1934 | |
| The Procession of the Penitents at Furnes | 1935 | Painting |
| The Ray | 1892 | Painting |
| The Rebel Angels Struck by Lightning | 1907 | |
| The red mullet | 1880 | Painting |
| The Riding Crop | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Roman Triumph | Date unknown | Drawing |
| The Rooftops of Ostend | 1884 | Painting |
| The rooftops of Ostend | 1901 | Painting |
| The Rower | 1883 | Painting |
| The Savoy Cabbage | 1884 | Painting |
| The scaffolding | 1880 | Drawing |
| The Scandalized Masks | 1883 | Painting |
| The Scavenger | 1896 | |
| The Scoundrels | 1896 | |
| The Seashells (Columbus) | 1895 | Painting |
| The Shadow on the House | 1933 | |
| The Skate | 1880 | Painting |
| The Skaters | 1888–1889 | |
| The Skaters | 1889 | |
| The Sleeper | 1887 | |
| The Small Boats | 1894 | |
| The Sombre Lady | 1881 | Painting |
| The Stars in the Cemetery | 1888 | |
| The strange masks | 1892 | Painting |
| The Street-Lamp | 1888 | |
| The strike | 1888 | Drawing |
| The Supper at Emmaus | 1880 | Drawing |
| The Temptation of Christ | 1888 | |
| The Temptation of Christ | 1913 | Painting |
| The Temptation of Saint Anthony | 1887–1888 | Drawing |
| The Temptation of Saint Anthony the Great | 1927 | Painting |
| The Terrible Archer | 1888 | |
| The Thunderstorm | 1889 | |
| The Tournament | 1894 | Drawing |
| The Tribulations of St. Anthony | 1909 | Painting |
| The Triumph of the Death | 1887 | Drawing |
| The Van Iseghemlaan in the snow | 1881 | Painting |
| The Vengeance of Hop-Frog | 1896 | Painting |
| The Virgin of Consolation | 1892 | Painting |
| The Wait | 1880 | Painting |
| The War of the Snails | 1911 | |
| The White Cloud | 1884 | Painting |
| The Windmill at Mariakerke | 1889 | |
| The wise judges | 1891 | Painting |
| The Wise Judges | 1894 | |
| The Youth of Orpheus | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Theatre of Masks | 1889 | Painting |
| Theatre of Masks (1908) | 1908 | Painting |
| Theo Hannon | 1880 | Drawing |
| Theo Hannon | 1881 | Painting |
| Theo Hannon met pijp | 1880 | Drawing |
| Three Silhouettes (recto) | 1880 | Painting |
| Tijgerjacht | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Toilettafel met wasstel en spiegel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Tolstoï | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Toneelfiguren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Toneelfiguur | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Toneelscène | 1910 | Drawing |
| Tovenaars in de stormwind | 1888 | |
| Town Hall of Audenaerde | 1888 | |
| Trap, man, gebladerte (detail) | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Treurende vrouw en leeuwenkop | 1870 | Drawing |
| Tribulations of Saint Anthony | 1887 | Painting |
| Triomftocht van een Romeinse Veldheer | Date unknown | |
| Triomphe romain | 1889 | |
| Trommelaar | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee danseressen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee figuren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee figuren en ornament | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee heren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee heren en pauw | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee honden | 1894 | Drawing |
| Twee hoofddeksels en boerinnetjes | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee hoofden | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee hoofden, paar, hand | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee knapen in het gras | 1880 | Drawing |
| Twee koperen potten (verso) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Twee kopjes en afdruk | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee koppen en een hand | 1880 | Drawing |
| Twee militairen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee naakten op de rug gezien | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee ridderfiguren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee trappen en mand | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee vrouwen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee vrouwen en een theoloog | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee windmolens, zeilboot en kleine marine | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee zeilboten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Twee zeilboten en een windmolen | 1950 | Drawing |
| Tweearmige pianokandelaar en muziekblad | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Two Arabs | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Two Dogs | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Two draught horses | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Two Gentlemen Smoking | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Two heads and a spinning-wheel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Two masks | 1880 | Drawing |
| Two masks | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Two Nude Figures | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Two spoons and a curtain | 1885 | Drawing |
| Two Women | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Two women on a beach | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Un bon coin chez moi | 1938 | Painting |
| Under the Shadow of Masks | 1925–1937 | Painting |
| Untitled | Date unknown | |
| V. De Heilige Familie (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| V. La Sainte Famille | Date unknown | |
| Vaas en vliegende eend | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vaas en voeten (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Vaas met bloemen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vaas met bloemen en schelp | 1932 | Drawing |
| Vaas met bloemornamenten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vaas met vismotief en vrouw met bloemenvaas | 1880 | Drawing |
| Vaas, paard en figuren (verso) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Vaas, spinnewiel, soldaten, vrouwen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vader (?) en moeder van Ensor | 1870 | Drawing |
| Van Iseghemlaan, Oostende | 1889 | |
| Van Izegemlaan in Ostend | 1880 | Drawing |
| Varken en silhouetten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Verhaal zonder woorden (of) De jagers in de winter | 1881 | Drawing |
| Verovering van een vreemde stad | 1888 | |
| Verpesting beneden, verpesting boven, verpesting overal | 1904 | |
| verzameling van 184 etsen | Date unknown | |
| VI. De besnijdenis (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| VI. La Circoncision | Date unknown | |
| Vier naakten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vier schouwburgbezoekers | Date unknown | Drawing |
| View of a beach with two boats | Date unknown | Drawing |
| View of a street with a barrow, a streetlamp and a man sitting on a bench | Date unknown | Drawing |
| View of Mariakerke | 1901 | Painting |
| View of Nieuport | 1888 | |
| View of Ostend in the East | 1888 | |
| View of Phnosie, luminous waves and vibrations | 1890 | Painting |
| View of the Ostend Harbour | 1888 | |
| View of the Van Iseghemlaan | 1906 | Painting |
| VII. De doop van Christus (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| VII. Le Baptême du Christ | Date unknown | |
| VIII. Christus bij de schriftgeleerden (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| VIII. Le Christ et les docteurs | Date unknown | |
| Vijf personages in een boot (verso) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Village Fair at the Windmill | 1889 | |
| Vissen op een schotel | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Visser met paard | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vlam | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vleugel tegen zonnestralen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vlucht naar Egypte | 1921 | |
| Vlugge schetsen van bedelaars | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Voetpaadje in Groenendaal | 1888 | |
| Voetpaadje te Groenendaal | 1888 | |
| Vogel en hond bij tak | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Voor de alcade | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Voorovergebogen figuren | 1880 | Drawing |
| Voorovergebogen figuur en tekst | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouw aan klavier en Alfred William Finch | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouw die pannenkoeken bakt | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouw en hondje | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouw, handen en kar | 1881 | Drawing |
| Vrouw in profiel gezien | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouw - man en paard | 1880 | Drawing |
| Vrouw met hoed | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouw met kind, zittend en staand paar | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouw met naaiwerk | 1880 | Drawing |
| Vrouw met neergeslagen blik | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouwenhoofd | 1883 | Drawing |
| Vrouwenhoofd | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouwenhoofd en figuren | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouwenhoofd en zittende figuur | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouwenkop en figuurtjes | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouwenkop en silhouetten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Vrouwenprofiel (Mariette Rousseau) en andere figuren | 1885 | Drawing |
| Vue d'Ostende | 1893 | Painting |
| Vue D'Ostende à L'est | 1888 | |
| Vue de Nieuport | 1888 | |
| Vue du port d' Ostende | 1888 | |
| Waaier, lamp en figuren (recto) | 1880 | Drawing |
| Walkurengenoegens | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Wandelaar | 1883 | Drawing |
| Wasvrouwen bij de Middellandse zee | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Weggeveegde tekening | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Wenken der nimfen | 1923 | Drawing |
| Wenteltrap | Date unknown | Drawing |
| White and Red Clowns Evolving | 1890 | Drawing |
| Willy Finch in his Studio | 1880 | Painting |
| Willy Finch in the Studio | 1880 | Painting |
| Windmill | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Windmill and boats | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Windmill at Skykens | 1891 | |
| Windmill at Slijkens (Bredene) | 1891 | |
| Windmill at Slykens | 1891 | |
| Windmill "Den Oranjenboom | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Windmolen met zeilboot en met kerk | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Windstoot in het geboomte | 1888 | |
| Wit paard, stoel en figuren | 1880 | Drawing |
| Witches in the Whirlwind | 1896 | Drawing |
| Wizards in a Squall | 1888 | |
| Woman | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Woman on a Breakwater | 1880 | Painting |
| Woman reading | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Woman with a Hood and a Wasp | 1885 | Drawing |
| Woman with Blue Shawl | 1881 | Painting |
| Wordly meeting | Date unknown | Drawing |
| X. Laat de kleinen tot mij komen (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| X. Laissez venir à moi les petits enfants | Date unknown | |
| XI. Christus drijft de duivel uit bij een bezetene (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XI. Le Christ chassant le Démon du corps d'un possédé | Date unknown | |
| XII. Christus bedaart de storm (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XII. Le Christ apaisant la tempête | Date unknown | |
| XIII. De wonderbare visvangst (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XIII. La Pêche miraculeuse | Date unknown | |
| XIV. Christus loopt op het water (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XIV. Le Christ marchant sur la mer | Date unknown | |
| XIX. Christus ter berechting overgeleverd aan de schriftgeleerden (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XIX. Le Christ aux critiques | Date unknown | |
| XV. De intrede in Jeruzalem (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XV. L'entrée à Jérusalem | Date unknown | |
| XVI. Het Laatste Avondmaal (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XVI. La Cène | Date unknown | |
| XVII. De judaskus (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XVII. Le baiser de Judas | Date unknown | |
| XVIII. De bespotting van Christus (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XVIII. Le Christ aux outrages | Date unknown | |
| XX. De geseling (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XX. La Flagellation | Date unknown | |
| XXI. De kruisweg (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XXI. La montée au Calvaire | Date unknown | |
| XXII. De kruisoprichting (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XXII. L'Élévation en croix | Date unknown | |
| XXIII. Christus tussen de moordenaars (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XXIII. Le Christ entre les larrons | Date unknown | |
| XXIV. De kruisafneming (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XXIV. La Descente de croix | Date unknown | |
| XXIX. De Heilige Geest verlicht de apostelen (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XXIX. Le Saint Esprit éclairant les Apôtres | Date unknown | |
| XXV. Le retour du Calvaire | Date unknown | |
| XXV. Terugkeer van de Calvarieberg (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XXVI. Le Christ sur les genoux de sa mère | Date unknown | |
| XXVI. Piëta (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XXVII. Christus en de engelen (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XXVII. Le Christ et les Anges | Date unknown | |
| XXVIII. De Hemelvaart (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XXVIII. L'Ascension | Date unknown | |
| XXX. De Tenhemelopneming van Maria (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XXX. L'Assomption | Date unknown | |
| XXXI. De engelen vereren Maria (uit: Taferelen uit het leven van Christus) | 1921 | |
| XXXI. La Vierge adorée par les Anges | Date unknown | |
| Yellow Apples | 1880 | Painting |
| Young Boy | 1882 | Drawing |
| Zakmes met bewerkte hecht | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Zeilboot | Date unknown | Painting |
| Zeilboot, dorpskerk en windmolen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Zeilbootje | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Zeilboten | 1890 | Drawing |
| Zeilboten | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Zelfportret | 1919 | Drawing |
| Zelfportret en figuren - Ensor en zijn familie | 1886 | Drawing |
| Zelfportret onder leeuwenjacht | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Zelfportret ("Pas fini") | 1885 | Drawing |
| Zicht op Nieuwpoort | 1888 | |
| Zieke luizenbos bij de kachel | 1895 | |
| Zittend meisje en twee figuurtjes | 1917 | Drawing |
| Zittend naakt met gekruiste benen | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Zittende en staande heer | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Zolder, trap en mand (verso) | Date unknown | Drawing |
| Zonderlinge insecten | 1888 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Ensor does not fit one stable label. His early work includes realist interiors, seascapes, portraits and still lifes; later paintings use grotesque, satirical, religious and theatrical imagery with brighter contrasts and deliberately unstable space. “Belgian modernist” is useful as broad context, while Symbolism and Expressionism describe important affinities rather than the whole career.[1][4]
Many early pictures use subdued tonal ranges and close observation of domestic or coastal subjects. From the later 1880s, crowds, masks, skeletons and vivid contrasts become more conspicuous. The difference is not absolute: still life persists, early paintings can be formally daring, and later works often revisit older motifs.[1][7]
He painted in oil on canvas and on prepared panels, working with both thin applications and more emphatic brushwork. Object studies record grounds, underdrawing, opaque and transparent layers, varnishes, revisions and varied brushes. Specific pigments should be stated only when analysis of the particular work supports the identification.[3][7]
Light links his apparently different subjects. In an interior it can activate cloth, glass and a face; in a seascape it can weaken the boundary between water and sky; in a grotesque composition, pale grounds and sharp colour contrasts can make a crowd flicker. Light is therefore both observed atmosphere and a means of constructing the image.[4][5]
KMSKA in Antwerp holds the world’s largest and most diverse Ensor collection, including The Oyster Eater and The Intrigue.[4] Mu.ZEE in Ostend holds Self-portrait with flowered hat; the Getty in Los Angeles holds Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889; MoMA in New York holds Masks Confronting Death; and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels holds Skeletons Fighting over a Pickled Herring.[9][11][14][16]
Discussion
Use this evidence-led guide as a starting point for close looking rather than a final verdict.
Share an observation about James Ensor Paintings or a source that adds useful context.
Reader Insights
Which material decision best defines Ensor's practice in this group of works?
Where do you see observation and invention working together rather than as opposites?
Which work would you add to the selected group, and what would it change?
Join the Conversation
Add your reading below, keeping observations specific and evidence clear.
References
- Flemish Art Collection, “Ensor as Painter”. View source; Herwig Todts; James Ensor: An Online Museum; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), “Ensor Research Project”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), “Online Scholarly Catalogue: Notes to User”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), “James Ensor”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), “The Oyster Eater”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), “Six Things You Should Know About Ensor’s Oyster Eater”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), “Online Scholarly Catalogue: Mask and Crustaceans (Vive le Carême)”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Art Institute of Chicago, “James Ensor: The Temptation of Saint Anthony”. View source; digital scholarly catalogue; accessed 30 August 2026.
- J. Paul Getty Museum, “Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- J. Paul Getty Museum, “James Ensor: Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889”. View source; Patricia G. Berman; 2002; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Museum of Modern Art, “James Ensor: Masks Confronting Death”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), “Astonishment of the Mask Wouse”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), “Ensor Painted Over His Own Work”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Flemish Art Collection and Mu.ZEE, “Self-Portrait with Flowered Hat”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA), “The Intrigue”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, “Squelettes se disputant un hareng saur”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.
- Flemish Art Collection, “Ensor et Leman Discussing Painting: An Unrestrained Confession by James Ensor”. View source; accessed 30 August 2026.










