Peintre et Graveur

Quarto. 26cm. Publisher's illustrated paper wraps, respined. 96pp.;[4]. Some spotting and soiling to wraps, and light chipping to extremities, bright and striking, internally clean with mild uniform toning to the relatively cheap paper stock, fore-edge untrimmed, illustrated throughout with 111 works by Ensor including the full color front cover ("Le Masques et La Mort") and a green-tinted lithograph of "Demons Me Turlupinant." A very good, strong copy of a rather ephemeral and scarce publication. Housed in a tailor made black cloth case, titled in gilt to spine. Printed by the Parisian art magazine "La Plume" to accompany Ensor's first exhibition outisde his home country of Belgium. Held at the Salon des Cent between December 1898 and January 1899, Ensor's exhibition was something of a cause celebre and heralded his entry into the cut throat Parisian art scene with the support and encouragment of other artists like Armand Rassenfosse, who at that time was working on his momentous suite of illustrations for Baudelaire's "Fleurs du Mal" (published in a limitation of only 130 copies, and now considered one of the pinnacles of 19th century book illustration). La Plume, one of the premier art journals of note, devoted considerable coverage to Ensor, and went so far as to publish this special illustrated issue of his work to introduce the Parisian art world to a man whose style, although adjacent to artists like Rops and Schultz, was still something of a shocking and unknown quantity to the general public.…