Diedriek, resident:
The baths at Ostend - it’s sometimes reminiscent of Where’s Wally, don’t you think? All those striped figures are drawn rather than painted and some are represented by no more than a few doodled lines. The waves are teeming with them. James Ensor saw himself as heir to Pieter Bruegel and Hieronymus Bosch, also famous for their large scenes full of funny, bizarre figures. But, at the same time, he was a harbinger for the comic strips of the 20th century.
For example, take a look at this postcard. Ensor probably took it from his family’s souvenir shop, where he himself regularly manned the cash register. He sent it to a certain doctor Loin and his daughter ‘Mademoiselle Gogo’ in Brussels in 1894.
It is a photographic postcard, with a quarter of the space taken up by a picture of the beach. That was the custom with the very first postcards. The photographs only filled part of the front, leaving enough space to write something next to them. There was only room for the address on the back.
Ensor had great fun. He doodled on the picture. He lengthened the bathers’ legs, drew seasick passengers on a boat, and he spiced it all up with fish, crabs and little devils. He could easily have made a comic strip with it!