Ontwerp voor een ex libris voor D. Goedkoop 1874 - 1945

Carel Adolph Lion Cachet made this design for a bookplate with brush and ink. It's amazing how much detail he gets with just black and white, it really comes down to mark making and composition. The design is like a crest, packed with symbols: ships, dolphins, lions. The crisp black ink makes dynamic shapes. Look at the way the dolphins mirror each other, but aren’t exactly the same. It gives the whole piece a lively, hand-made feel, you can see the variation in the pressure of the brushstrokes. There’s a real graphic quality to this, a bit like the work of Aubrey Beardsley, though more nautical. It’s not trying to be realistic, it's about creating a striking, symbolic image. For me, it shows how limitation can be liberating in art, and that you don’t need lots of color to say something powerful.