Peste Dessous, Peste Dessus, Peste Partout.

Etching, 19,7 x 29,6 cm, Japan paper 28,5 x 40 cm, signed in the plate at bottom right (sm. unobtrusive crease at bottom left, min. light stains in plate).

This very rare work returns to the subject of a drawing of 1888 in the collection of KMSK Antwerp. The composition is partly based on a photograph from the same year taken in Bruges showing Ensor in company seated on a bench. The figures from left to right are Ernest Rousseau, Marie Ensor, Willy Finch and Mariette Rousseau. Beneath the bench one can see a malodorous excrement. To the left a tramp carrying a child introduces herself while, to the right, two fishermen are exchanging rotten fish. The sun, horrified by the scene, is vomiting in the sky.
Ref. Taevernier 127.