Achivalia

This rubric gives an overview on what is available in the Ensor Archival material: in the first instance, the personal archive of James Ensor and in addition to that a number of related archives and, finally, a few relevant documentary collections.

James Ensor was a prolific writer who maintained a lively correspondence of letters with numerous collectors, admirers and art critics. His correspondences provide a glimpse into his artistic production and his personal development. Ensor‘s manuscripts are dispersed and are to be found in various public and private collections. Only a portion of them is published.

The condition of the paper legacy of James Ensor is illustrative of the precarious situation of artists‘ archives. The commercial value of pieces that are drawn up and signed by artists is the reason for such pressure placed on Archival material. The delivery of an archive as an organically grown and coherent unity of documents is rather exceptional in this context.