Herman Moerkerk - Vier studies van Middeleeuwse figuren - Sold

Herman Moerkerk (1879-1949). Four historical figures. Most likely these are studies for the 750th anniversary of the city of 's-Hertogenbosch for which Moerkerk made designs.

Hermanus Antonius Josephus Maria (Herman) Moerkerk (Den Bosch, March 2, 1879–Haarlem, August 23, 1949) was a Dutch painter, illustrator, draftsman and bookbinding designer. Moerkerk attended grammar school in Sittard and later made a name for himself as a writer, director and designer of posters. He did not receive any art training, but was a student of the calligrapher Theodorus van Kempen (1896), of the painter Piet Slager Sr., and from 1899 he took lessons with the painter Jan Bogaerts. Moerkerk developed as an independent artist: around 1910 he was already quite known as a draftsman, especially for his caricatures of Brabant folk types. He also provided critiques in the Brabant newspapers and was active as an organizer of the carnival. He also wrote a number of fairy tales and children's books.
Because he felt misunderstood as a painter, in August 1927 he showed some forty expressionist oil paintings in Tilburg under the pseudonym Alexei Wladkine, which differed from his other work. At this exhibition Moerkerk mingled with the public and made critical remarks to them about the works he had made himself.

In 1928 he left with his family for Haarlem, where he started working for De Spaarnestad. He worked there until 1940 as an employee of the Catholic Illustration; He also designed bindings and book covers. Moerkerk also worked as a draftsman for the Catholic newspaper De Tijd and directed the theater for the Haarlem Rederijkerskamer Alberdingk Thijm, founded in 1890. The painter Jacques Pijnenborg was one of his students.