The Gendarmes, 1888

The etching "The Gendarmes" is associated with the painting "The Last Tribute to the Counts of Egmont and Horne" by Louis Gallait (Tournai, Museum of Fine Arts), one of the most important icon paintings of the Belgian Romantic period. Ensor took the bed with the two reclining figures from the painting. The placing of the bystanders in the print also seems to refer to the Romantic painting. However, the direct cause for the etching was the fishermen's revolt against the English fishermen in Ostend in 1887. In the print Ensor clearly sided with the oppressed and vehemently protested against the terror of the armed gendarmes. Ensor's vision is therefore diametrically opposed to the somewhat emotionless homage that Gallait paid to a highlight of Dutch history. The print "The Gendarmes" refers to the drawing "The Strike", also known as "The Massacre of the Ostend fishermen", from 1888 (Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, inv. 1888). Ensor further elaborated the theme of "The Gendarmes" in a painting in 1892 (Ostend, Mu.ZEE, inv. 1950/160).