Geboorte van Venus 1924

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst made this print, Geboorte van Venus, with a muted green ink. It's easy to imagine the artist carefully carving the linoleum or wood block. Each cut must be so deliberate! I wonder if he was thinking about Botticelli's Venus, that iconic image of beauty and grace. But this Venus feels different, more raw, maybe? There’s a certain earthiness in the monotone palette that sets a different tone. The waves, rendered with quick, decisive marks, contrast the smooth form of Venus, who emerges, vulnerable yet strong. Her pose, arms raised, hair flowing, is so stylized. Holst is not just repeating a classical myth, he's reinterpreting it, giving it a modern, almost Symbolist twist. Like Paula Modersohn-Becker, he's thinking about the nude as a form to explore, stripping it bare and finding something new in an old story. Holst is in dialogue with them, reinventing and reimagining the possibilities of the nude in art.