The following text was written and submitted by Jean Ershler Schatz, artist and researcher in Laguna Woods, California:

James Ensor was born in 1860 in Ostend, a Belgian seaport and watering place. His parents ran a little junk shop, and Ensor's childhood was obsessed by the dark and frightening attic, full of items from the shop. He attended the Brussels Beaux-Arts from 1877 to 1880. Ostend must have been a very stuffy place, but Ensor could hardly bear to leave it. In his whole life, he made just one trip to Paris, Holland and London each. He was a reclusive man with an eclectic brush, who turned a wide range of styles and influences into a scabrous, satirical vision of grinning skulls and tormented masks. T...