Straatgezicht met trap in Cagnes-sur-Mer 1928

This woodcut, made by Abraham Johannes Jansma, shows a street scene with stairs in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Look at the radical decision to carve away so much of the woodblock to reveal the stark white paper beneath. For me, that's what pulls the work out of pure representation and into the realm of feeling. The texture of the paper itself becomes part of the image, contrasting with the dense, velvety black ink. I’m drawn to the way Jansma uses these deep blacks to create a sense of depth and shadow, pulling you into the winding street. Notice how the stairs on the right are reduced to simple horizontal lines, almost like an abstract pattern, which then echoes the distant passageway, with its ghostly figure. That doorway in the back is like a promise or a threat, a way out, or a trap. Jansma’s way of simplifying and exaggerating forms reminds me of the German Expressionist woodcuts by artists like Kirchner and Heckel. But there’s also something very personal here. This print is not just a picture of a place, but a record of how Jansma experienced it. It’s like he’s saying, "This is how I saw it, this is how I felt."