Jan de Wasscher 1903 - 1919

This is Jan de Wasscher number 65, and it's a print by Arie Willem Segboer. The colours are pretty muted, a sort of pastel palette, and the figures are outlined with a dark, decisive line, which gives it a comic book feel, even though it probably predates them. Each image shows a different scene in the life of the titular Jan, and his, shall we say, domestic travails. I'm focusing on the central image, the one where he's washing clothes, or rather, he's sat in a barrel doing the washing. What's so great about this image is the fact that, as in all the panels, it's not like Segboer is trying to hide the process - look at those crude lines, they're almost like doodles, really! There's a folk art quality to this piece, and the process is visible, even celebrated. I'm reminded of Emile Nolde - another Germanic artist - who had a similar, deeply personal and emotional approach to image making. Nolde made prints too, often with similarly garish colours. Art is always a conversation, and here, Segboer is speaking to us across time, loud and clear.