The Garden of the Rousseau Family (1885): Art, History and Details

The Garden of the Rousseau Family (1885) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is James Ensor (Belgian, 1860–1949).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This painting depicts the garden of the artist’s 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.

Object facts

• Title: The Garden of the Rousseau Family
• Date: 1885
• Creator attribution: James Ensor (Belgian, 1860–1949)
• Culture: Belgium, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on fabric
• Dimensions: 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.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1950.582

A detail from the museum

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.

Collection credit

Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.

Further reading listed by the museum

• Verhaeren, Emile. James Ensor. Bruxelles: G. Van Oest & cie, 1908.
• Galerie Georges Giroux, and J.-F Elsander. Bulletin Et Catalogue Des Expositions James Ensor, 7. Au 18. Jan. 1920. Bruxelles.
• Le Roy, Grégoire. James Ensor. Bruxelles, Belgium : G. van Oest, 1922.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.