Kafka & Ensor

IB English HL
January 27^th, 2012

Journal 5: Kafka & Ensor

There are several connections between Kafka’s Metamorphosis and The Skeleton Painter, a painting by James Ensor.
First, both pieces of art reveal something about the artist himself.
In The Metamorphosis, we learn about Gregor, who transforms into a bug as a consequence of overworking, isolation and pressure. His miserable conditions in guilt and shame are due to the high expectations of his family, especially his father. Similar aspects apply for the author’s own past: He had a dominant, irascible and conservative father who was consistently dissatisfied with life. Kafka, insecure about his father’s unpredictability, evolved into a diffident, brooding and insecure man as a result.
In terms of Ensor’s painting, the connection between artwork and artist is much easier to detect. The Skeleton Painter is a self-portrait of the Belgian he made in 1895. The artist is surrounded by lots of painter’s accessories: different sized paintings, easel, palette, but also by scary masks and skulls which are turned towards him. Emotions in the picture are difficult to identify, but it seems like Ensor himself is smiling mockingly – his head replaced by a skull. The meaning of this change is approached below.
Another connection is pride and emotional meaning of objects.
Gregor in the Metarmorphosis is proud of the frame he has built on his own (p. 3, p. 8). The frame is the only item he tries to hide from his mother and sister to remove (p. 26). He artfully crafted it in his freetime. It might have been the result of the only productive activity that was not part of Gregor’s job. Moreover, the frame symbolizes Gregor’s former humanity. He wants to save it as an attachment to his human past.
The frame could also symbolize Kafka’s writings which he hid from everyone and later gave to his friend Max Brod in order to burn them.
In the case of Ensor, we can assume that he is really proud of his work, because he shows himself in the middle of his art studio where he is in the middle of many of his paintings. The differences in size and color may represent Ensor’s potential for variety. Certainly, the artist was emotionally bound to the paintings - he put part of himself into each of his paintings in some way. By displaying himself in the middle of skulls and masks, he becomes part of his art. It is notable that each skull shown in the room has either a paintbrush or sits atop the easel, as if Ensor would watch himself from within the artwork. It can be imagined that he was eager to be situated in his painting’s world for one time, a world that he has created on his own.
A further connection between The Metamorphosis and The Skeleton Painter is the aspect of inhumanity.
The figure of Ensor in the painting is quite small compared to other objects in the room, for example the chair, the easel or the door. The smallness is emphasized through the large number of paintings in the room. It seems very crowded, but Ensor’s duplicate has already adapted and transformed into a skeleton. Thus, he is less human, similar to Gregor by transforming into a bug. Gregor, however, changes as a consequence of living to work instead of working to live. He is obligated to provide money for the family because they have to pay off debts to his boss. Although he dislikes his job, he continues and gets used to the bitter conditions. As his body and mind can not stand the distress any longer, it is inevitable that he transforms into a bug.
This realization provokes the question of why Ensor portrays himself as a skeleton. Skulls are mostly associated with death and toxicity, so why did Ensor keep integrating them in his paintings? Relating back to the observation of the skulls and masks being focussed on the artist, it can be assumed that Ensor’s creations began to haunt him. Like a toxin, the bizarre figures of skeletons, puppetry, masks and carnivals infect Ensor. Either he yields and allows his art to take over his real life or he wants to illustrate the intensity of his imaginative art by changing his real self into a theatrical skeleton. Or alternatively, he questions the veracity of his artistic talent, much as Kafka does. He is almost making fun of himself; similar to Kafka, who makes a critical yet mocking perspective of the life of Gregor Samsa or himself.