James Ensor's (1860-1949) pencil sketch of a mythological scene exemplifies how modern artists continued to draw inspiration from classical mythological sources while transforming them through distinctive personal vision and contemporary concerns. As a Belgian artist renowned for his unsettling works that blend surrealism, grotesque imagery, and sharp social commentary, Ensor approached mythological subjects not as mere academic exercises but as vehicles for exploring profound questions about human existence and social structures.

Throughout his career, Ensor explored themes of death, human folly, and societal masks, frequently employing motifs like skeletons, masks, and distorted figures. His engagement with mythological imagery provided an established symbolic language through which he could address these persistent concerns, adapting classical references to express distinctly modern anxieties about identity, mortality, and social authenticity.

Ensor's ability to fuse mythological, religious, and folk imagery with contemporary social critique positioned him as a precursor to surrealism, demonstrating how traditional symbolic systems could be reimagined to address the psychological and social disruptions of modernity. His work demonstrates that mythological thinking remained a vital artistic resource even as traditional belief systems lost cultural authority, providing flexible frameworks for exploring aspects of human experience that resist purely rational explanation.

The tension between the real and the imagined in Ensor's work—highlighted in this drawing's cataloguing title—reflects broader modernist concerns with the nature of reality and representation. By deploying mythological imagery within dreamlike or nightmarish landscapes, Ensor created visual experiences that challenged simplistic distinctions between objective and subjective reality, using traditional symbolic language to explore distinctly modern psychological territories. His enduring influence demonstrates how mythological frameworks continued to provide valuable resources for artistic innovation even in rapidly secularising modern contexts.