Although Jean Brusselmans is often associated with silence and tranquillity, he also painted scenes with multiple figures. Yet his approach always remains form-oriented and controlled. In this carnival scene, you see no light-hearted festivity, but a compact group of figures standing almost like wooden dolls. Masks and faces are simplified into angular shapes, with powerful contours and solid areas of colour. Red, black and pink create tension, but the colours remain embedded in a tight composition. Movement is created not by loose brushstrokes, but by rhythm and repetition of forms. This gives the carnival an ambiguous meaning: celebration and alienation at the same time. Brusselmans shows people as volumes in a painterly construction. The work emphasises his ability to fit human figures into the same monumental order that characterises his landscapes.
