Drie bloemen 1895 - 1938

Johannes Nicolaas made this print of three flowers, called ‘Drie bloemen’, at an unknown date using an etching technique. The artist's approach to mark-making, combined with the monochromatic palette, gives the print a kind of raw, immediate feel, as if we're catching a glimpse of the artist’s thought process. Up close, you can almost feel the texture of the plate, with its tiny imperfections. Each flower is rendered with bold, graphic lines, yet there's a delicate balance between positive and negative space, where the absence of ink is just as important as the ink itself. Focus on the top flower: you see how the petals are formed by a series of confident, almost brutal, strokes? There's a tension between the fragility of the flower and the strength of the marks, as if the artist is capturing not just the appearance of the flower, but its essence, its vital force. It puts me in mind of Paula Modersohn-Becker’s prints, with their similar focus on the expressive potential of line and form. Ultimately, it’s about embracing ambiguity and the myriad interpretations that arise when art and life collide.