Nikolaas Eekman - the Fisherman

Beautiful woodcut by Nikolaas Eekman on Japanese paper. Period 1920-1930. No. 41/90. Paper size: 58 (h) x 46 (w)
Nikolaas Mathijs Eekman (Brussels, 1889 – Paris, 1973) was a Dutch figurative painter, sculptor, graphic artist and illustrator, also known in France, Belgium and the Netherlands as Nicolas Eekman, Nico Eekman and under the pseudonym Ekma. His parents came from Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. He was born in Brussels in the house where Victor Hugo, then in exile, wrote Les Misérables. After studying architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, he fled to the Netherlands before the First World War and settled in the parsonage of Nuenen. Thirty years earlier, the Van Gogh family lived in the same rectory. Until the end of the war, Eekman exhibited his work in the Netherlands, where major museums and collectors bought his works, including Helene Kröller-Müller. In 1921 he left for Paris, where he exhibited with numerous artists. In 1937, at the International Exhibition in Paris, Eekman received a gold medal for his painting "La Pelote bleue". He was a member of Arti et Amicitiae and Sint Lucas in Amsterdam, De Onhoudenen and the Société des Beaux Arts "Le Trait" in Paris. His style can be characterized in three periods: expressionist from 1914 to the late 1920s, Flemish realist at the beginning of the 1950s, and finally 'fantastique'. Subjects: Genre scenes and landscapes.