Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita

The graphic oeuvre of Jessurun, who was murdered in Auschwitz, ranges from woodcuts and etchings to a special batik technique. He had started as an applied artist, but then gradually found his way to free art; initially with references to Symbolism and Art Nouveau, which he transformed or further developed into a very idiosyncratic Expressionism in the 1920s. Like hardly anyone else of his time, he pushed the limits of letterpress printing (sometimes with a black line on a white background, sometimes in reverse as white line printing, dashed surface design, ornamental forms, etc.) With his animal motifs he gained a considerable reputation in the Netherlands, while his portraits were undervalued - a mistake, for Jessurun is among the pre-eminent portraitists of 20th-century Holland. In addition, an imaginative work was created, whose bizarre human-animal (non-)beings and the explicit "fantasies" with reference to fairy tale and gothic novel motifs still attract the attention of today's viewers. The name Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, which is not exactly local, refers to the artist's descent from a Jewish-Sephardic family who had come to the Netherlands from Portugal. Since the individuality of his style could hardly be passed on, his work was only selectively perceived by the public, most likely around the turn of the century when he was seen in Paris together with Edvard Munch and Félix Vallotton. The tyranny of the Nazis in 1940-45 also deprived him of the opportunity to have a broad impact. And would be his faithful, but in the artistic development quite incomparable student M.C. If it hadn't been for Escher, who was able to keep many works out of the occupier's reach, the name Jessurun would probably have remained terra incognita. But only now can and must one evaluate the artist in European terms. Citation: www.portalkunstgeschichte.de

Submitted by Kunstantiquariat Joseph Fach Gmbh