It is considered a self-portrait and along with the painter's red signature at right, the sanguine "XX" insignia at far left, and the painting's prospective date suggests Ensor's intent to cast himself as the true prophet of the art to come.
To date, his highest profile work has been a collaboration with handbag designer Anya Hindmarch, and spray painting the entire alphabet on the shop shutters of a street in Spitalfields in his signature ice-cream palette.