James Ensor, The Cathedral, etching, second plate (1896)

James Ensor, The Cathedral, etching, second plate (1896), printed on simili Japanese paper, signed and dated top right inside the plate and signed bottom right outside the plate in graphite, 17.8 x 24 cm, framed behind passe-partout and glass (41 x 47 cm). The Cathedral is generally considered one of the most important etchings in Ensor's graphic oeuvre. The etching is an early example of the great crowd as a theme in Ensor's work, something that would reach its peak in the Entry of Christ in Brussels. The theme of the sea of people had already been used by Antoine Wiertz in 1856 in his oil study Apotheosis of Queen Louise-Marie, a study in preparation for an unexecuted canvas that was to be 50 feet high. Ensor took inspiration from an image of Aachen Cathedral to depict the Gothic church building. For the tower on the left, he took Vienna's St. Etienne Cathedral as an example. For the tower on the right served the Cathedral of Our Lady of Antwerp. Images of both cathedrals Ensor found in Le Magasin Pittoresque of 1883. The depiction does not have the frightening of the hunted crowd from 'Death Chases the Herd.' Here it seems more like a celebration, a procession or a parade than a grim demonstration. Yet the meaning is difficult to ascertain. Is Ensor alluding to the church as an institution that dominated the society of his day? Or is it simply a fantastic vision centering on the splendor of Gothic architecture? In 1896, he would etch a second version of this print that is difficult for an untrained eye to distinguish from the first. The work offered here is a beautiful print of this second plate, with full lines and few scratches. On the reverse it has a countersignature in graphite.