THE ARTS

“Christ’s Entry into Brussels in 1889,” a monumental painting by Belgian Expressionist James Ensor, goes on view today in the J. Paul Getty Museum’s 19th-Century galleries. The museum bought the 14-foot-wide canvas last year at an undisclosed price from a private Lichtenstein foundation but whisked the painting off to the conservation laboratory for examination and cleaning. According to a press release: “The removal of 30 years’ accumulation of dirt and grime has revealed the brilliant coloring, virtuoso brushwork and spatial complexity of Ensor’s masterpiece.” The canvas, executed in a consciously primitive style, is the very antithesis of traditional religious paintings. Mocking the society he lived in, Ensor portrayed Christ as a tiny figure overwhelmed by a crowd of grotesque characters.