Vijftig gulden belooning 1894 - 1959

This print, Vijftig gulden belooning, was made by Monogrammist G.J. without any specific date. It's like a comic strip, with different scenes laid out in a grid. I can imagine G.J. carefully planning each scene, thinking about how the story unfolds across the page. The colors are muted but lively, and the lines are simple, direct, and economical. I get a sense of clarity, a realness, but also a kind of wry humor. In one panel, a guy is flailing about after seemingly tripping on a dog! The movement is kind of wonderful. G.J. has captured the sense of falling perfectly, with the hat and basket flying off. I can see how one artist picks up on another’s ideas, passing them on and reinterpreting them. The piece, for me, shows how the artist is working something out, making visible an idea, an emotion, a narrative through a series of gestures. Like all good art, it embraces ambiguity and uncertainty, offering up space for our own interpretations.