Translated as “Skeletons Fighting for a Smoked Herring.” The herring was Ensors personal symbol for his own art, appearing in many paintings. It is sarcastic word-play. In French “Hareng-saur” sounds like “Art Ensor.” Here, the two skeletons represent two critics who, fighting over Ensor’s art, want to literally tear it apart, each wanting to be the one who does him in. His first major exhibition, in Paris in 1898, was a failure you see, with the critics calling him “mad, foolish and nasty.” More here.
