The painter's father, James Frederic Ensor (1835-1887), studied engineering in England and Germany and married Maria Catherina Haegheman (1835-1915) in Ostend. He was a cultivated man who showed much support for the artistic aspirations of his son, though he never felt at home in Ostend and eventually became an alcoholic. Ensor's mother ran a shop where she sold souvenirs, chinoiseries, and masks,