Tribulations of Saint Anthony

Tribulations of Saint Anthony (1887) by James Ensor, now in the collection of Museum of Modern Art, engages with architectural and urban subject matter, situating the artist within the 19th-century tradition of veduta and topographical painting developed from Dutch and Italian precedents. James Ensor was one of the most anarchic and visionary painters of the late 19th century. Growing up in Ostend, Belgium, surrounded by his family's shop selling carnival masks and seashells, he developed a grotesque imagery of masked figures, skeletons, and social satirical tableaux that baffled his contemporaries but influenced generations of Expressionist and Surrealist artists.

Ensor applied paint with raw, sometimes deliberately crude strokes that convey grotesque energy rather than technical refinement. His palette is lurid and confrontational — acid yellows, harsh magentas, sickly greens — creating a carnival atmosphere of unease.