Military man seen from behind.

Oil on pink cardboard, 23,5 x 15,9 cm, illeg. ms. note and later label on verso (varnished, except on edges, sm. loss, corners rubbed, prickhole at upper edge).

Framed (studied outside frame).

Attractive sketch of a military man in the streets. With a few effective brushstrokes, James Ensor (1860-1949) created a beautiful contrast between the red trousers and the dark vest with gold epaulettes. The work is unsigned, but the Ensor Advisory Committee has confirmed its authenticity. Ensor used the same colours and the same pink cardboard with similar dimensions around 1880. In this period he painted silhouettes in the streets and the objects that surrounded him. Very similar works are "Le porte-manteau" from 1876 (X. Tricot, James Ensor. Life and work. The complete paintings, Brussels 2009, p. 232, n. 33) and the nine "sketches" from 1880 acquired by François Franck in the 1920s and exhibited in the Palais des Beaux-Arts in 1929, incl. "Deux personnages sous la pluie" (idem, pp. 251-253, n. 121-129, esp. n. 122). With certificate from the Ensor Advisory Committee.
Prov. Anna Roose (died 18.09.1980), Ostend. According to oral tradition in the family, Anna worked in a local shop with painter's supplies. - Bequeathed together with other works by James Ensor and Léon Spilliaert to her cousin, Kortrijk. - By descent to the current private collection, Belgium.