{
"data": {
"id": 127953,
"accession_number": "1950.582",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "The Garden of the Rousseau Family, 1885. James Ensor (Belgian, 1860\u20131949). Oil on fabric; framed: 96.2 x 82.6 x 9.3 cm (37 7/8 x 32 1/2 x 3 11/16 in.); unframed: 75.5 x 61 cm (29 3/4 x 24 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr., 1950.582",
"current_location": null,
"title": "The Garden of the Rousseau Family",
"creation_date": "1885",
"creation_date_earliest": 1885,
"creation_date_latest": 1885,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Belgium, 19th century"
],
"technique": "oil on fabric",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Modern European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 96.2 x 82.6 x 9.3 cm (37 7/8 x 32 1/2 x 3 11/16 in.); Unframed: 75.5 x 61 cm (29 3/4 x 24 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.962,
"width": 0.826,
"depth": 0.093
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.755,
"width": 0.61
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Signed in blue lower left: ensor\r\n",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 355724,
"title": "Ways of Painting Landscapes",
"description": "Ways of Painting Landscapes. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 13-May 6, 1953).",
"opening_date": "1953-03-13T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 218209,
"title": "James Ensor Retrospective",
"description": "James Ensor Retrospective. Mus\u00e9e d'Art Moderne, Mus\u00e9es Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium (September 24, 1999-February 13, 2000).",
"opening_date": "1999-09-24T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 224290,
"title": "Impressionist Gardens",
"description": "Impressionist Gardens. National Galleries of Scotland (July 31-October 17, 2010); Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain (November 23, 2010-February 27, 2011).",
"opening_date": "2010-07-31T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 201332,
"title": "Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse",
"description": "Painting the Modern Garden: Monet to Matisse. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 6, 2015-January 5, 2016).",
"opening_date": "2015-10-06T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 383281,
"title": "Stories from Storage",
"description": "Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).",
"opening_date": "2021-02-06T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Modern Belgian Art in Private American Collections. Van Diemen-Lillienfield Galleries, New York, NY (1950).",
"opening_date": "1950-01-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "James Ensor, sold to Ernst and/or Mariette Rousseau at the salon of Les XX (no. 11)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1885-1890",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Ernest [1831-1908] and/or Mariette [1850-1926] Rousseau, Brussels",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"This painting depicts the garden of Ernest and Mariette Rousseau at their second home in Watermael-Bosvoorde, outside of Brussels. Friends of Ensor, the Rousseau appear in many of the artist\u2019s works. The painting was first published in 1908, when Emile Verhaeren listed it as belonging to Ernest Rousseau, but it may very well have been painted for Mariette, a biologist whose father was a botanist.
"
],
"date": "1890-at least 1908",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Henry van de Velde [1863-1957], Wassenaar, the Netherlands",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Henry van de Velde was a painter, architect, and part of the artists\u2019 group Les XX, of which Ensor was a founding member. Van de Velde participated in a number of exhibitions with Ensor.
"
],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "(Galerie Giroux, Brussels, sale, February 10, 1930, lot 41)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [
"Both the consignor and the buyer of the painting at this sale are unknown, although the former may be van de Velde.
"
],
"date": "1930",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "(Sam Salz, New York, sold to Leonard C. Hanna, Jr.)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "After 1930-1946",
"sortorder": 5
},
{
"description": "Leonard C. Hanna Jr., Cleveland, OH, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1946-1950",
"sortorder": 6
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1950-",
"sortorder": 7
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"428.46",
"2482.48"
],
"did_you_know": "James Ensor painted in a wide variety of styles and techniques, his subjects varying from realistic landscapes like this one to fantastical imagined scenes from literature and theater. The sea in his hometown of Ostend, Belgium, was also a favorite subject.",
"description": "This painting depicts the garden of the artist\u2019s close friends Ernest and Mariette Rousseau, with whom he often stayed at their home in Brussels, Belgium. He rendered this view of their garden in a technique of bold color applied with strong, broken brushstrokes. It is not known whether Ensor painted this work from life or memory, but the garden, empty of people, hints at feelings of social alienation, a dominant theme in his work.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60515786"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1950.582-the-garden-of-the-ro"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Verhaeren, Emile. James Ensor. Bruxelles: G. Van Oest & cie, 1908.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Galerie Georges Giroux, and J.-F Elsander. Bulletin Et Catalogue Des Expositions James Ensor, 7. Au 18. Jan. 1920. Bruxelles.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: no. 20",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Le Roy, Gre\u0301goire. James Ensor. Bruxelles, Belgium : G. van Oest, 1922.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 112",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Haesaerts, Luc, and Paul Haesaerts. Flandre; essai sur l'art flamand depuis 1880. Paris, France: E\u0301ditions des Chroniques du jour, G. di San Lazzaro, e\u0301diteur, 1931.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 662",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Galleries (New York, N.Y.). Modern Belgian Art in Private American Collections: [Exhibit] at the Van Diemen-Lilienfeld Galleries, from May 13th to May 26th, 1950. New York, NY: [publisher not identified], 1950.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: no.11",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, \u201cRecent Acquisition Press Release,\u201d July, 1951, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://archive.org/details/cmapr0023"
},
{
"citation": "Tricot, Xavier. James Ensor: Catalogue Raisonne\u0301 of the Paintings. Antwerp, Belgium: Pandora Ortelius, 1992.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Tricot, Xavier. James Ensor: Catalogue Raisonn\u00e9 of the Paintings. London: P. Wilson, 1992.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Ollinger-Zinque, Gise\u0300le. Ensor: Muse\u0301es Royaux Des Beaux-Arts De Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. Wommelgem: Blonde\u0301 Artprinting International, 1999.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 134, no. 71",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Argencourt, Louise d', and Roger Diederen. Catalogue of Paintings. Pt. 4. European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1974.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 256-258, Vol. I, no. 93",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Tricot, Xavier. James Ensor. Ostfildern: Hatje Cantz, 2009.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Willsdon, Clare A. P. Impressionist Gardens. Edinburgh, Scotland: National Galleries of Scotland, 2010.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 100-101; Reproduced: p. 163, fig. 66p.",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Willsdon, Clare A. P. Jardines impresionistas. Madrid, Spain: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2010.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 162",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Ensor, James. James Ensor. Lyon: Fage Editions, 2023.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 17",
"url": ""
}
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"creditline": "Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.",
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{
"id": 1773,
"description": "James Ensor (Belgian, 1860\u20131949)",
"extent": null,
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"role": "artist",
"biography": "The painter's father, James Frederic Ensor (1835-1887), studied engineering in England and Germany and married Maria Catherina Haegheman (1835-1915) in Ostend. He was a cultivated man who showed much support for the artistic aspirations of his son, though he never felt at home in Ostend and eventually became an alcoholic. Ensor's mother ran a shop where she sold souvenirs, chinoiseries, and masks, objects that would often appear in his work. Ensor was very close to his only sister, Maria Carolina Emma (called Mitche), whom he portrayed repeatedly. In 1876 he enrolled at the Ostend Academy and painted mainly seascapes. In 1877 he entered the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, where Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) was a fellow student. Two years later he was introduced to the Rousseau-Hannon family by Th\u00e9o Hannon (1851-1917), a painter, poet, and art critic. In 1880 Ensor returned to Ostend where he set up a studio in his parents' house, but he went frequently to Brussels in order to visit the Rousseaus. He started exhibiting regularly in 1881, though his work was often criticized or rejected. In 1882 Ensor became a member of the art society L'essor and one year later cofounded the avant-garde group Les XX (Les vingt). He was much dismayed by the dominance of French art in Belgium and in particular by the success of Seurat's (q.v.) pointillist style. The death of his father in 1887 meant that Ensor had to assume the role of head of the household, which aggravated his financial difficulties. In 1888 he started working on his masterpiece The Entry of Christ into Brussels in 1889 (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles). In this forceful manifesto against Belgian society, Ensor identified with Christ as a gravely misunderstood individual. That same year he met Augusta Boogaerts (1870-1951), whom he called \"La Sir\u00e8ne,\" and they became lifelong friends. His mother was vehemently opposed to their marriage, which therefore never happened, even after her death. In 1893 Les XX disbanded despite Ensor's objection, and La Libre Esth\u00e9tique replaced it as the avant-garde artistic organization. Ensor was not granted full membership, however, and in an act of despair he unsuccessfully tried to sell all his work for BF 8,500. In 1894 he exhibited with La Libre Esth\u00e9tique and founded the Cercle des Beaux-Arts d'Ostende. He became more appreciated around this time; he had his first solo show in Brussels in 1894, and a few months later the state bought The Lamp-lighter for the Mus\u00e9es Royaux de Beaux-Arts in Brussels. An exhibition in 1898 at La Plume in Paris, however, was a fiasco. With a few exceptions, his work after 1900 is now generally little valued, although official recognition came at that time. In 1903 he received the title of Knight in the Order of Leopold, and in 1929, the year of a major retrospective in Brussels, he was granted the title of baron. Besides working as a painter, draftsman, and printmaker, he also became involved with music and theater.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1860",
"death_year": "1949",
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"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1950-12-28T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1885,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1885",
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"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:01:23.955000"
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}