The assassination

1888
Etching in black on simili-Japan paper
17.8 x 23.8 cm
Signed in plate: J. Ensor / Signed with title and dated in pencil lower left: J Ensor / 1888

+32 (0)9 281 11 70

The scene shows a man held down on a table by four other in large, feathered hats, as on of them slits his throat. To the right an ols woman is leaving the room. In 1886 the writer Iwan Gilkin published his story 'L'assassinat dans un café' in La Jeune Belgique, an arts magazine to which Ensor subscribed. In 1887, at the annual exhibition of Lex XX in Brussels, Henry De Groux (1866-1930) showed his painting The murder, inspired by the novel Kees Doorik by the Belgian writer George Eeckhoud (1854-1927). Ensor knew both painter and novellist personally. In Ensor's work The murder becomes a scene of unimaginable horror. A version in oil exists (Colombus Museum of Art, Ohio, USA, inv. 91.001.014) painted in 1890 and very different from the etching.
No states are known to exist. Only a few rara prints were taken on laid Holland paper and then touched up with water-colour (yellow and red). The plate bears an undated signature in small leters low to the right. (Taevenier, 1973).

Ghent, Museum of Fine Arts, inv. no. 1998-B-38 (hand-coloured etching).
New York, MoMa, inv. no. 328.2002.
New York, MoMa, inv. no. 160.1999 (etching with gouache, colored pencil and crayon additions).

Delteil, L., Le Peintre graveur illustré : H. Les, H. de Braekeleer, J. Ensor, vol. XIX (Paris: 1925), no. 38 (ill.).
Croquez, A., L'Œuvre gravé de James Ensor - Catalogue raisonné (Paris: Maurice Le Garrec, 1935), no. 38 (ill.).
Taevenier, A., Graphic works of James Ensor. Illustrated catalogue of his engravings their critical description and inventary of the plates (Ghent: Erasmus Ledeberg, 1973), no. 38 (ill.).
Elesh, J.N., James Ensor The Complete Graphic Work (The Illustrated Bartsch, vol. 141) (New York: Abaris Books, 1982), no. 38 (ill.).
Cooke, L., A. Taevenier et. al., James Ensor. Etchings from the collection of 'Gemeentekrediet België' exh. cat. (Brussels: Gemeentekrediet van België, 1978), 26, no. 31 (ill.).
Alechinsky, P. e.a., Ensor, exh. cat. (Blondé/KMSKB: Wommelgem/Brussels, 1999), 308, no. 319 (ill. of water-coloured etching coll. MSK Ghent inv. 1998-B 56).
Becker, J. & Hirner, R. C. Ottnad e.a., James Ensor (1860-1949). Visionär der Moderne, exh. cat. (Bonn: VG Bild-Kunst, 1999), 133 (ill.).
Gillis, E., James Ensor. A collection of Prints (C. G. Boerner, 2002), 68, no. 33 (ill.).
Tricot, X., James Ensor. The complete prints (Roeselare: Defiac, 2010), 100-103 (ill.), 287, no. 48a (provenance Galerie Atelier/F. Aerts, Ostend).