The buyer's premium is 28.125% of the hammer price… Read more

MESQUITA Mesquita is the name Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita wished to be called as a student aged 14 at the architect's studio Springer in Amsterdam. This wish seems to be characteristic for the man and his work. Both modest and stylized: this was to become his brand. Initially his prints from woodblocks were used on textiles for "'t Binnenhuis", spezialed in interior decorations, in the flow of the turn-of-the-century arts and crafts movement. Simultaneously Mesquita explored printmaking as a free artistic discipline, taking on two directions. In the first place his prints show obvious autobiographical elements, on the other hand his so-called sensitivistic drawings seem to have no direct relationship to the every-day outer world. They seem to turn inwards into a bizar realm with a population of caracitures stimulating Mesquita's doodling drive ceaselessly. Any scrap of paper would do to fullfill this urge. Never has Mesquita commented on these drawings and prints of which we find examples in the present collection. (Lots 406 and 407). These prints presented themselves in the art magazine Wendingen as question marks to the art critics of their time. Criticism was confused and even after Mesquita's death an auctioneer once announced the sensitivistic drawings as the work of a complete idiot. Somehow the term sensitivistic originated shortly after 1900 as a unique label for the fantastic imagery of Samuel Jessurun the Mesquita. The artist reluctantly put them on show and made them for his own pleasure, culminating in piles of paper to be found after his deportation by the German occupators in 1944. Friends of the artist rescued as much of them as they could possibly take with them under their arm from the sealed studio. One of these friends and pupils was M.C. Escher who visited classes in Haarlem where Mesquita was his teacher at the Kunstnijverheidsschool. Clearly the young Escher was influenced by the prints Mesquita made. Especially in the woodcuts this parallel shows. Mesquita portrayed his personal life in his etchings, lithographs and woodcuts. In the upcoming lots we see his wife and son (lot 397), the flowers his wife grew and the animals he visited in Artis. All in sharp contrast of black and white, hardly with any background. Many were prepared in sketches and drawings as well as in unique technical experiments with the printing medium (lot 400). These prints found their way to private and public collections during his lifetime. Even the Zebra which he never meant to cut into wood, since for Mesquita the Zebra was the ultimate living woodcut.

S.J. de Mesquita (1868-1944)

Sitting nude with calla lillies

Details

S.J. de Mesquita (1868-1944)
Sitting nude with calla lillies
woodcut, 1912, on gray wove paper, signed in pencil, the inking unevenly, very few foxmarks, strips of tape along the upper reverse sheet edge, otherwise generally in very good condition
S. 573 x 395 mm.

Special notice

The buyer's premium is 28.125% of the hammer price up to value of NLG 200,000 plus 19.2% of any amount in excess of NLG 200,000

Lot Essay

See illustration

More from TWENTIETH CENTURY ART INCLUDING BELGIAN ART

View All