Art and Influence

John Wise in front of the Ensor House and Museum in Oostende, Belgium

One of Caroline and my first trips together was to the Belgian coast, a place I often thought I would like to live. In the small town of Oostende, I brought Caroline to the James Ensor House and Museum. I had been here once before and now wish I might once more have the opportunity to visit again someday. The dearth of interesting museums dedicated to the work of evocative artists here in America leaves a lot to be desired. For example, we visited the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and it’s just a big old office building commandeered as a drab resting place for some of his work.

Caroline at the enterance of the Paul Delvaux Museum in Koksijde, Belgium

The next stop on this trip was my third visit to the Paul Delvaux Museum. Along with Otto Dix and Francis Bacon, Delvaux was one of my favorite artists. On my first visit, a visitor who was also enamored with the work of one of Belgium’s greatest artists told me that the man himself had been at the museum just the day before. He described the most piercing blue eyes and fragile, lithe fingers that impressed this visitor with the idea that those hands had created such beautiful works of art. This stranger was back for a second visit with the hopes that Delvaux might make another appearance. Delvaux was already 90 back then on my first visit; he would live another seven years before passing on in 1994.

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