James Ensor was a Belgian painter and printmaker who anticipated both Expressionism and Surrealism with his grotesque, carnavalesque imagery. Masks, skeletons, and screaming crowds populate his canvases in a riotous blend of social satire and existential anxiety. Largely unappreciated in his time, he was recognized as a major precursor to 20th-century avant-garde movements only late in his long life.
