Sunday Arts

At the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, just around the corner from our apartment, there are two new exhibitions. One is a retrospective of the cranky-pants Belgian expressionist James Ensor and the other is a collection of Dutch romantic paintings, owned by a TV producer, direct from the great Hermitage St Petersburg. On Sunday I rode my bike to the museum and visited the exhibitions while Sean was having a nap.

James Ensor in his loungeroom 1948

Cranky-pants James Ensor

The most way-out of the exhibitions is of the paintings and drawings of the Belgian James Ensor (1860-1949).The cynical and morose Ensor had a chronic chip on his shoulder. He was born and spent most of his life in the seaside town of Ostend in Belgium. His father was probably an alcoholic. His mother had a curio-souvenir shop that sold seashells, china and grotesque Carnival masks. Ensor lived and painted above the shop. He was a loner, an outsider and sensitive to criticism, although he was happy to lash out criticism to other artists. He was in his own words "surrounded by hostility.” 

Ensor helped found the Les XX (The Twenty) annual exhibitions in protest to the conservative Salon exhibitions of the time. However many of the critics and even his fellow avant-garde painting colleagues trashed the work he exhibited calling it “fatally retrograde.” Ensor thought he was way ahead of everyone else and the criticism egged on his cynicism, his suspicion, his crankiness and his art. When Ensor finally started to get recognition for his paintings in the very late 1800’s his work became a lot more boring. Some artist’s paint better when everybody hates them.

Ensor’s most famous works are his freaky paintings of the skeletons and masks he dressed up and painted as kind of weird still lifes in bright colour palettes. I like their nightmarish quality.

The Intrigue (1890), James Ensor

A mask from Ensor's estate

The Dutch Romantics

The collection of nineteenth century Dutch romantic paintings at the Gemeenete Museum although less radical than Ensor, was still stunning. I liked the narrative at the beginning of the exhibition which said that Romanticism evokes towering mountain scenery and violent emotion, neither of which are common in flat Calvinist, sober Holland. So it seems the Dutch Romantics used the drama of the sea and the weather and moonlight to evoke emotion and the concept of the Sublime in their work. 

The collection is owned by Jef Rademakers, a former Dutch TV producer. His collection was recently exhibited at the Hermitage in St Petersburg and is the largest collection of 19th century Dutch and Flemish Romantic paintings.

Shipwreck (1849), Christian Cornelis Kannemans (1812-1884)

Marine Scene at Night, Petrus van Schendel (1806-1870)

I like these dreamy, mystical sometimes terrifying paintings and it puts me in a good mood.

After Sean’s Nap

After Sean’s nap, we caught the number 17 tram to the plein in The Hague and drank white wine for me and beer for him with the rest of The Hague in the sun. Yes the sun is here in The Hague. Magical!