James Ensor. A Collection of Prints. Presented for sale. Catalogue by Eric Gillis With the collaboration of Patrick Florizoone.

Einband leicht berieben. - Ensor's prints were produced on a wide variety of paper types: different sorts of parchment or laid paper, gray China, simili-Japan, thin or thick Japan, and the artist tended to select them himself with the printer. Exceptionally, some proofs were printed on parchment, like The Music in the Rue de Flandre in this catalogue, or on old laid paper, like The Elephant's Joke or on other special supports, such as The Cathedral or Village Fair at the Windmill that were made on silk. When he was working with the printer, Adolphe Van Campenhout, for example, from the 1920s, Ensor asked him to print on very white paper, such as Japan Imperial or pearly Japan. Some of Ensor's etchings were also printed in colored inks, including red chalk, bistre, sepia, red, blue, gray, or a mixture of these colors used with black ink. There are some unique impressions too, like The Cathedral printed in blue and in red. However, Ensor never used more than one color of ink on the same plate and did not use the a lapoupec or the reperage techniques of applying color. With the a lapoupee technique, a single etched plate is inked with different colors in various areas. For example, the head of a figure might be inked in pink ink and a tree trunk in brown ink. With reperage different plates are etched, one for each color of the design. These individually colored plates are then printed one by one on the same sheet. Ensor probably did not use these methods because of their technical complexity. To create different colors, the artist instead colored his etchings by hand in brown or black ink, colored pencils, gouache, watercolor, or a combination of these.