Jan Mankes - The Milkmaid, 1914

Jan Mankes (1889-1920)

The Milkmaid

1914

19.2 x 14.5 cm

Hand-signed in pencil lower right.

Condition:

The edges are slightly browned, otherwise in good condition.

Literature:

Alied Ottevanger, Jan Mankes, 1889-1920 (Oeuvre Catalogue) - Gh6.

Additional information:

Jan Mankes (1889-1920) was a Dutch artist known for his landscapes, still lifes and portraits. Born in Meppel, he studied at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in The Hague. His personal view of nature and the fragile way in which he translated it into his work earned him the nickname “Holland’s most tranquil painter”.

Mankes had a deeply personal relationship with nature. He had a great love of animals and plants and was fascinated by their smallest details and constant change. This is reflected in works in which he depicts nature in an intimate and poetic manner.

He often used clear and luminous colours in his works, applied with very thin brushstrokes. This created a sense of transparency in his paintings. His later works became more dreamlike and darker in colour. He frequently depicted flowers and plants in decline or on the point of withering, and made studies of dead birds. These subjects give his work a melancholic atmosphere and evoke the cycle of nature.

These prints are a fine example of Mankes’s poetic style. He often depicted animals in their natural habitats, or flowers fading in an autumn garden. His prints remain highly regarded for their aesthetic qualities and their contribution to Dutch art history.

Mankes died of tuberculosis at the age of just thirty. Despite his early death, his work continues to be admired by art lovers. A drawing or oil painting occasionally appears on the market. The vast majority of his oeuvre is held by Dutch museums, including the Rijksmuseum, Museum Belvédère, Museum MORE, Museum Arnhem and Museum Møhlmann.