Jan Giesen - A special (unique) hand-colored woodcut from the 1950s, "Young Woman"

• Artist: Jan Th. Giessen (1900 - 1983)
• Title: "young woman"
• Year: 1950s
• Technique: hand-colored woodcut on rice paper
• Edition: Dimensions (image): 47 x 30cm sheet size: 60 x 50cm
• Signature: in pencil and in the plate
• Condition: good, very good condition
  

An artist, born at the wrong time but in the right place: Jan Th Giesen, The Hague 1900-1982. At the turn of the century, all disciplines of a societal order seem to begin reflecting on the fulfillment of their role in the past and the changes they wish to introduce in the new century. It is comparable to the resolutions we make on New Year's Eve for the new year. It seems attractive to be born in the first year of a new century and to benefit from all those resolutions, but nothing could be further from the truth. Those born around the year 1900 face a difficult future: a world war during their adolescence, an economic crisis during the prime of their lives, and another world war at the time when actual “life” begins. After that Second World War, they are subsequently confronted with a generation of reconstructionists who show little respect for the older generation from before the war, making it barely possible to reap the rewards of their pre-war efforts. Johannes Theodorus Giesen was born in The Hague on November 15, 1900, and had to live for 82 years with all the stumbling blocks of this wrong timing, but nevertheless continued to believe in his work and passion as an artist.