28. My Dead Mother
Ensor was confronted by death at a young age in 1887 - when he was 27 - his grandmother died and shortly after he lost his father too. In 1915, his mother died; she was 80, he was 55. In the days following her death, he produced an oil sketch, the painting My Dead Mother and several drawings. He portrayed her exhausted by illness and old age: her face is gaunt and pointed. She is holding a cross in her bony hands and there is a statuette of Mary beside the bed. Our gaze is drawn not on his mother, but to the statuette and the many medicine bottles with some red, blue and green accents. Religion and science: neither managed to save his mother. Ensor was an anxious person, often preoccupied by illness and health. Doctors came and went, visiting him, his mother, aunt and sister, resulting in Ensor developing a dislike of them. He painted the caricature 'The bad doctors' in 1892. Note the smaller version of the composition with his late mother from 1915. Ensor writes at the bottom of this drawing on panel: "Ma mère morte - effets de médicastres": "My dead mother: the result of quacks". He thought doctors were just windbags, who, like religion, are no match for death.