"This new study of Ensor's art focuses on its social discourse and the artist's interaction with his contemporary milieu. Rather than the alienated and traumatized Expressionist given preference in modern art history, Ensor is presented here as an artist of agency and purpose whose art practice engaged the issues and concerns of middle class Belgian life, society and politics and was informed by the values and class, race and gendered perspectives of his time. This book invites a re-evaluation not only of Ensor's social context and expressive critique but also his unique contribution to modernist art practice"--
