Advertentie voor Reinaert de Vos before 1909

This advertisement for Reinaert de Vos was made by Bernard Willem Wierink, and I can imagine him bent over his drawing desk. The image has a clear medieval reference, with these fantastic beasts lining the top and bottom edges. I think he was probably a very precise artist, carefully carving out these images with great attention to detail. All those tiny marks must have taken so much concentration. Look at the borders of the text, made up of tiny squares, like cross-stitch. I am reminded of other graphic designers, such as Aubrey Beardsley, but here the animals give it a very Dutch feel. The animals are really nicely observed; you can see that he had looked at them very closely. What connects artists through time is how we learn from each other. We copy each other, and sometimes we get it wrong, but we can always see that we have been inspired by someone else's creativity.