Paddenstoelen 1892 - 1951

This is Janus de Winter’s ‘Paddenstoelen’, a print of mushrooms, made in the early twentieth century. Imagine the artist carefully carving each line into the block, the steady hand needed to render the delicate gills and stems. There’s a hypnotic rhythm to the marks, a dance between light and shadow. I wonder what De Winter was thinking about as he worked. Did he see these fungi as symbols of nature’s hidden beauty? Or perhaps he was simply captivated by their forms? The way the dark ink clings to the paper gives it a tactile quality, like you could almost reach out and touch the earthy texture of the mushrooms themselves. I am reminded of other printmakers like Félix Vallotton, who also used black and white to explore the hidden corners of everyday life. Like all artists, they are in an ongoing conversation, inspiring one another across time. A print like this reminds us that art is not about fixed meanings, but about embracing ambiguity and opening ourselves up to new ways of seeing.