Eugène Demolder was a close friend of James Ensor. This art critique championed the contraversial artist. Demolder was the first to publish a monograph on Ensor. It was Demolder who was behind Ensor's first oneman exhibition in Brussels. This portrait alludes to the art of the Middle Ages and expresses albeit with Ensor's characteristic irony the late 19th century's renewed appreciation of the Flamish Primitives.
Flemish art and heritage collections, in great detail