Frans Masereel (1889–1972)

"Amsterdam"

Woodcut on cream wove paper, pencil signed by the artist and signed with initials in the plate.

Size: (sheet) 27.6 x 18.6 cm; (plate) 15.5 x 11.5 cm.

Condition: Strong impression signed by the artist in pencil, in excellent condition with blank verso.

I am selling this original woodcut by one of the most important graphic novel (i.e. wordless book) illustrators for AU$135 in total (currently US$98.42/EUR87.04/GBP68.49 at the time of posting this print) including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are interested in purchasing this visually arresting print—a truly superb example—please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.

For those who share my interest in smoke, this print by Masereel exhibits one of the best graphic representations that one could hope to find. Smoke is a difficult substance to portray and it is even harder to portray convincingly. A part of the difficulty is that the essential properties of smoke that an artist needs to show is that it is fluid, transparent and intangible (amongst a host of other more subtle properties). The trickiest part of representing smoke is to suggest its amorphous form in perspective.

What makes this representation of smoke marvellous is that these principles are addressed so well that viewers have no difficulty in interpreting what the rising plume of curved lines portray. For those viewers who are fascinated by technical wizardry, note in particular how Masereel makes a seamless transition from negative lines (i.e. white lines) to positive lines (i.e. black lines).