Edward Burra was a documentarian. With a keen eye, he drew satirical portraits of urban life—first in 1920s London, then in Italy and the south of France. He populated his scenes with macabre figures in vibrant color. In fact, “macabre” was one of Burra’s favorite words, according to the sculptor John Aiken. In a café scene, there are ghoulish monsters and skeletons. In a seemingly innocent still life, sinister shadows creep at the corners. When the Boston Herald interviewed him in 1937 about his choice of imagery, Burra replied, “I don’t know how it got there, it was just a bad feeling, I guess.” Now the work of this enigmatic artist, who died in 1976, receives its first hometown retrospective in 40 years. —Elena Clavarino