Thee 1894 - 1959

This is a beautiful instructional print about tea, made in the Netherlands, we don’t know exactly when, but it's likely to be late 19th century, by an artist known only as Gordinne. The images are like little windows, each carefully ringed with the same golden line. Notice how the colours, though limited, are laid down with such precision, filling each shape perfectly. To me, it feels like a delicate dance of intention and care. In the lower-left panel, the “Thee Market”, the faces of the merchants have these tiny flicks of red on their cheeks and lips, giving a sense of vitality and movement to the scene. This detail alone, the careful consideration of a simple mark, speaks volumes about the piece as a whole. I’m reminded of the work of the American folk artist, Joseph Yoakum, who also used coloured pencils to create imagined landscapes of real and imagined worlds. This print, like Yoakum’s drawings, invites us to wander through the artist’s personal vision, celebrating the simple act of looking.