The Temptation of Saint Anthony

Prints and Drawings

1887

James Ensor
Belgian, 1860-1949

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: James Ensor
Title: The Temptation of Saint Anthony
Place: Belgium (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: Made 1887
Medium: Colored pencils and scraping, with graphite, charcoal, conté crayon, and additions in colored chalk and watercolor, selectively fixed, with cut and pasted elements, on 51 sheets of ivory wove paper (discolored to cream), joined, and formerly laid down on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed lower right: "James Ensor 1887"
Dimensions: 179.5 × 154.7 cm (70 11/16 × 60 15/16 in.)
Credit Line: Regenstein Endowment and the Louise B. and Frank H. Woods Purchase Fund
Reference Number: 2006.87
Copyright: © 2018 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / SABAM, Brussels

Pol de Mont, “De Schilder en Etser james Ensor”, in De Vlaamsche School (1895), pp. 115 and 118 [translated into French in La Plume (Paris, 1899), pp. 86 and 89].
Emile Verhaeren, James Ensor (Brussels, 1908), pp. 67-69.
Albert Croquez, L’Oeuvre Grave de James Ensor (Paris, 1935), p. 39.
Ensor-Ein Maler aus derm Spaten 19. Jahrhundert, exh. cat. (Stuttgart, Württembergisher Kunstverein, 1972), p. 40.
Paul Haesaerts, James Ensor (Brussels: Atelier de l’Art Graphique, 1973), p. 85.
Diane Lesko, James Ensor: The Creative Years (Princeton: Princeton University, 1985), pp. 123-128.
Robert Hoozee, Sabine Brown-Taevernier, James Ensor: Dessins et Estampes (Antwerp: Fonds Mercator, 1987), pp. 83-92 (ill.), 127-129, no. 81-82.
Lydia Schoonbaert, Robert Hoozee, James Ensor, exh. cat. (Paris: Musée du Petit Palais, 1990), pp. 56-57 (ill.).
Robert Hoozee, James Ensor: Schilderijen, Tekeningen en Grafiek, exh. cat. (Utrecht: Centraal Museum, 1993), p. 39. no. 31 (ill.).
Eliane De Wilde (editor), Ensor, exh. cat. (Brussels: Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belique, 1999), p. 35 (ill.).
Catherine de Zegher (editor), Between Street and Mirror: The Drawings of James Ensor, exh. cat. (New York: The Drawing Center, 2001), pp. 34 and pp. 63-64 (ill.).
Patricia Berman, James Ensor: Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889 (Los Angeles: The Getty Museum, 2002), pp. 82 and 72 (ill.).
Herwig Todts, “Goya, Redon, Ensor: Grotesque Paintings and Drawings,” exh. cat. (Antwerp, 2009), pp. 222, and 223-29.
Susan M. Canning, Patrick Florizoone, Nancy Ireson, Kimberly Nichols, Debora Silverman, Anna Swimbourne, and Sabine Taevernier, with a forward by Herwig Todts, “James Ensor: The Temptation of Saint Anthony” (Art Institute of Chicago, 2014). https://publications.artic.edu/ensor/reader/temptationstanthony. Accessed August, 2015, Preface para. 1, fig 1 (ill.), Overall Drawing, Revelation, Resistance, and Resilience para. 1, fig. 1 (ill.), para 8, fig 4 (ill.), para. 11, fig 6, 7, 8, 9 (ill.), para. 13, fig. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 (ill.), para. 15, fig. 16, 17, 18 (ill.), para. 18, fig. 19 (ill.), para. 20, fig. 21, 22, 24 (ill.), para. 21, fig. 26, 27, 28, 29 (ill.), para. 24, fig. 30 (ill.), para. 27, fig. 34, 35, 36 (ill.), para. 29, fig. 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 (ill.), para. 30, fig. 46, 48 (ill.), para. 31, fig. 50 (ill.), para. 34, fig. 53 (ill.), The Trials of the Temptation, para. 8, fig. 2 (ill.), para. 16, fig, 3 (ill.), para. 24, fig. 11, 12 (ill.), para. 30, fig. 16 (ill.), Anthony and the Benediction, para. 5, fig. 3, 4 (ill.), para. 6, fig. 6, 7 (ill.), para. 7, fig. 9 (ill.), para. 8, fig. 10, 11 (ill.), para. 9, fig. 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 (ill.), para. 11, fig. 17, 18, 19 (ill.), para. 12, fig. 20, 21, 22 (ill.), Ensor’s Panache, para. 1, fig. 1 (ill.), para. 7, fig. 3 (ill.), para. 19, fig. 22, 23, 24, 25 (ill.), para. 20, fig. 26, 27 (ill.), para. 21, fig. 28, 29, 30 (ill.), para. 24, fig. 35 (ill.), para. 26, fig. 36, 37 (ill.), para. 30, fig. 40 (ill.), para. 36, fig. 45 (ill.), para. 37, fig. 50, 51 (ill.), para. 38, fig. 53, 54, 55 (ill.), para. 41, fig. 60 (ill.), para. 42, fig. 62 (ill.), para. 44, fig. 67 (ill.), para. 45, fig 68 (ill.), Transcending Tradition, para. 1, fig. 1 (ill.), para. 5, 11, fig. 2 (ill.), para. 11, fig. 7 (ill.), para. 13, fig. 10, 11 (ill.), para. 19, fig. 15 (ill.), para. 20, fig. 16 (ill.), para. 22, fig. 17 (ill.), para. 23, fig. 18, 20 (ill.), para. 24, fig. 21 (ill.), Individual Sheets, sections 230-280.

Brussels, Salon Les XX, 1889.
Possibly, Liège, Cercle Athlétique Liégeois, “Exposition d’Eaux-fortes et de Dessin de James Ensor,” Mar. 1903.
Antwerp, Musée des Beaux-Arts, “Rétrospective James Ensor,” June-Aug. 1951, p. 18, cat. 153.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Temptation: The Demons of James Ensor,” No. 23, 2014-Jan. 25, 2015; also Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, June 10-Sept. 7, 2014.
Antwerp, Belgium, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, “In Your Wildest Dreams: Ensor Beyond Impressionism”, September 28, 2024 - January 19, 2025, pp. 20-22 (ill.), 193-207, fig. 173 (ill. and details), cat. by Herwig Todts, et. al.

Sold by the artist to Maurice Speth (1887-1938), Kapellen (Belgium), June 12, 1922 [kept with the artist until 1939]; by descent to Maurice’s heir, Jean Speth (1885-1961); to Frédéric (1917-2001); by descent, to 2005; sold through C. G. Boerner to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2006.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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