the rijksmuseum bulletin

308 the rijks carel willink in the spotlight:museum a painter’s political pen bulletin

Carel Willink in the Spotlight: A Painter’s Political Pen

• caro verbeek •

‘ don’t enjoy drawing,’ the Dutch < Fig. 1 effect in landscapes and portraits by painter Carel Willink is reported carel willink, combining elements from reality in an I 1 to have once said. ‘As a young man Detail of Long improbable context. His cloudy skies I certainly couldn’t draw very well at Division, from were famous in the Netherlands and a sketchbook, 1965 all and now I’m a good bit older I still became part of the collective memory or before (detail). 2 can’t’. It seems that Willink found Pencil on paper, so that a ‘Willink sky’ was synonymous little pleasure in drawing. A dedicated 160 x 240 mm. with a threatening, dark sky with painter, his drawings were essentially Amsterdam, massed thunderclouds.3 functional. Leafing through his sketch­ Rijksmuseum, inv. no. In 2004 researchers at the Rijks­ books, we come across hastily depicted rp-t-2004-209-1(v); museum were able to examine in detail hands and disproportionate body parts, gift of S.M.E. Willink- some of Carel Willink’s sketchbooks Quiël, Amsterdam. and dark hatching lines that cover faces that had never been studied before, Photo: © S.M.E. and townscapes like an untidy blanket. Willink-Quiël. thanks to a generous gift from the His sketches and preliminary studies artist’s widow, Sylvia Willink-Quiël. – the majority of his drawings – were Over the course of a year, art historians obviously not intended as attractive Laure van Berkel and Caro Verbeek finished products. They often marked scrutinized 1,500 pages taken from the first stage of his photo realist fifteen sketchbooks. The books turned paintings – as a number of separate out to cover almost half a century notes that point to a theme, like the (c. 1915-65) and came in a great variety opening chords of an orchestral per­ of sizes, from pocket-sized to A3. The formance with strings and kettledrums. subjects can be grouped into architec­ Detail, proportion and expressive ture, fauna, portrait, landscape, classical means like colour, surface division sculpture, townscape and cloudy sky: and perspective only came into being the elements that form the running on the canvas. The painter used the theme in his paintings. Other striking preliminary studies ‘solely’ to establish categories are the shopping lists and pose, composition and light – usually the countless long divisions: Carel by means of outlines, and it is these Willink worked out precisely in which out­lines we examine here. proportion and size something had to Carel Willink (1900-1983), who in be placed on the canvas (fig. 1). his early career was still working in an Some seventy percent of the abstract and constructivist manner, sketches in the Rijksmuseum could became known above all in the nine­ eventually be traced back to finished teen-thirties for his magic realist land­ paintings. A good example is the scapes. Willink created an alienating drawing in which a shell-like shape

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Fig. 2 Fig. 3 carel willink, carel willink, Preliminary Study Double Portrait of for the Double A. and J. Klep, 1957. Portrait of Oil on canvas, A. and J. Klep, 170 x 135 cm. 1957 or before. Private collection. Pencil on paper, Photo: © S.M.E. 160 x 245 mm. Willink-Quiël. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. rp-t-2004-208-8(v); gift of S.M.E. Willink- Quiël, Amsterdam. Photo: © S.M.E. Willink-Quiël.

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centre left proved to be a man’s hand Dijkstra, for whose paper I made reflected in a table top. The ‘painter’s illustrations.’4 Having gone through palette’ to the right of it is in fact a every edition of De Groene Amster­ ‘klep’ – rattle – a pun on the sitters’ dammer, we were able to identify surname in Double Portrait of A. and almost all the surviving sketches J. Klep (1957) (see figs. 2-4). in illustrations and even cartoons After the initial reconnaissance, published in that one year: 1932. we were left with a puzzling group of The only ones we could not trace drawings of labourers, peasants and were studies of a boxer, an oil lamp sailors with caricatural heads, built on a table and a violinist. What is up in flowing lines, which appeared par­ticularly striking about the redis­ to bear no relationship whatsoever covered preliminary studies and the to Willink’s known paintings. The accom­panying end results is that as style was so different that we even an illustrator and political cartoonist, wondered whether the sketches might Willink used the same pictorial have been by another hand, until we strategies as he did in his paintings. turned our attention to his drawn illustrations. A single line in his diary Cartoons in De Groene for 1932 set us on a track that proved Amsterdammer in the to be the right one: ‘Every week at our Nineteen-Thirties and regular table in the Café Americain Willink’s Political Leanings in the Leidseplein, Wilma and I met Cartoons operate in various arenas: other magic realist painters and some political history, social attitudes, Fig. 4 acquaintances from the magazine journalism and art. Political prints Detail of fig. 2, De Groene Amsterdammer, including and caricatures show not only events, rattle and hand. the director Henk [actually Rients] but also how a particular group viewed

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Fig. 5 them. Their maker sometimes sub­ cultural level this was obvious from govert flinck, ordinates his own opinion to that of the many films, books and learned Isaac Blessing Jacob, the group and tries to find an aesthetic insights that were discussed weekly c. 1638. solution in order to interpret the story by cultural historians and scientists Oil on canvas, 117 x 141 cm. as clearly as possible.5 The medium can in columns like ‘Bioscopy’ by the Amsterdam, consequently reflect on political and film critic L.J. Jordaan. This polymath Rijksmuseum, social ideas as well as propagate them was also the chief art editor and a inv. no. sk-a-110. and challenge them.6 Willink published committed cartoonist with an acid- his cartoons at a time when cartoons filled pen; he was a confirmed anti- appeared in Dutch magazines and news­ nationalist and anti-Nazi. A good papers with large circulations. This example of his work is The Deceptive gave him a much larger audience than Hand, a parody of Govert Flinck’s his paintings. painting Isaac Blessing Jacob in the De Groene Amsterdammer, founded Rijksmuseum’s collection (figs. 5-6). A in 1877, also had a large readership couple of days after Adolf Hitler took in the nineteen-thirties. De Groene power in 1933, Jordaan depicted him as – so called because of the colour of its the – Jewish – patriarch Jacob who cover – described itself as a neutral tried to trick Abraham into handing periodical, but nevertheless had a clear over power to him. In Jordaan’s case, socialist and intellectual bias. On a Abraham is portrayed by the German

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Fig. 6 l.j. jordaan, president Paul van Hindenburg. Vice democrats on the left and the com­ The Deceptive Chancellor Franz von Papen, in the munists on the extreme left. The Social Hand, in De Groene role of the deceiver Rebecca, aids and Democratic Workers’ Party (sdap) in Amsterdammer, abets Hitler.7 particular, initiated – with the paltry 4 February 1933. At a political level De Groene resources the State provided – art Photo: National Library of the informed its public with its in-depth projects and buildings aimed at uplifting Netherlands, coverage of domestic and foreign the working class. The Amsterdamse The Hague. affairs.8 The years around 1932 were Bos, a huge landscaped park in marked by financial crises and Amsterdam, and well-ventilated and increasing tension in the run-up to the light housing complexes and other Second World War, with a devastating social facilities were designed and built war still fresh in the memory.9 The to improve the position of the less for­ period was subsequently described tunate, who ‘had a right to happiness’.11 as dark. Nevertheless it was certainly We shall see that Willink’s cartoons not all doom and gloom. The big city should be interpreted in this light. dwellers encountered modern culture Although we do not know Carel in the form of large cinemas and Willink’s exact political leanings new dances like the Charleston.10 during the nineteen-thirties, it is very The largest political parties were clear that he was left of centre during the liberals in the centre, the social the Second World War. Like the

313 the rijksmuseum bulletin editorial board of De Groene Amster­ sit on a terrace, as if they are in a bath < Fig. 7 dammer at that time, he strongly dis­ house in ancient Rome. However, in carel willink, approved of the right wing sentiments the background there is a structure The New Swimming associated with people like the fascist- that is certainly not in the Eternal City. and Sun Baths, in De Groene oriented Magic Realist Pyke Koch. It is a building with typical Amsterdam Amsterdammer, This emerges from sources including School features, including a round 13 August 1932, p. 5. an extract from Willink’s diary, which extension in maritime style. A picture Photo: National he published fifty years later. ‘It goes postcard published after the opening Library of the without saying that Koch was a of the baths shows identical features Netherlands, The collaborator,’ the artist recalled in by the architect Nico Lansdorp from Hague. © S.M.E. Willink’s waarheid.12 Unlike Koch, exactly the same angle (fig. 8).16 By con­ Willink-Quiël. Willink did not become a member of flating elements that would never be the Nederlandsche Kultuurkamer found at the same time in reality – one (Dutch Chamber of Culture) during of the most characteristic aspects of the Nazi occupation in the Second his paintings – Willink conveyed the World War. During the war only feeling that something unusual must artists who joined this institution set be going on. It is evident that the up by the occupiers were allowed to location was in the Dutch capital and sell their work. This meant people that the gentlemen were not patricians had almost been forced to join to but contemporary residents of Amster­ survive. But Carel Willink stood dam in antique dress. The subtitle firm. At the start of the war, when confirms this: ‘Hoe onze tekenaar an emissary from Hermann Göring zich Burgemeester en Wethouders visited Willink’s studio and offered en Raadsleden bij de opening van de a lot of money for his work, the Thermen van de Miranda [sic] heeft penniless artist lied and told him that voorgesteld’ (How our artist imagined everything had already been sold, even the Burgomaster and Aldermen and though he ‘hadn’t earned a penny’.13 Council Members at the opening of And when Ed Gerdes, a member of the the De Miranda Baths). Dutch National Socialist movement, These Thermen refer to the Amstel­ approached Amsterdam’s Stedelijk parkbad, now known as the De Miranda Museum during the occupation, the Baths, which opened on 6 August director David Röell declared that 1932.17 As an alderman of Amsterdam, Willink ‘objects to exhibiting abroad at the committed member of the sdap, the moment’.14 Unfortunately this Nazi Monne De Miranda, had worked hard interest in Willink’s threatening skies, for years for ‘Washing, Bathing and Neo-Classical elements and dignified Swimming Establishments’ even for portraits contributed to his undeserved the less fortunate. His clever campaign retrospective association with National slogan was ‘If you want to bathe, if you Socialism. want to swim, De Miranda’s the man, so vote for him.’18 After a long run-up Willink’s Cartoons De Miranda proudly and ceremoniously Willink only drew three cartoons for opened the new complex. Judging De Groene. They are images of local by the high number of visitors the and national events that would have initiative was an instant success. occupied the minds of the residents of The classical setting of the cartoon Amsterdam, such as the opening of a emphasizes the gulf between the public recreational facility for workers. aristocratically dressed gentlemen Initially the print The New Swimming and the intended public. Nowadays, and Sun Baths appears to be a cheerful we associate swimming baths with announcement (fig. 7).15 Serious- recreation, but in the nineteen-thirties looking men in togas recline, stand and a visit to a swimming bath was linked

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Fig. 8 Postcard with caption ‘Amsterdam. Nieuwe Gemeente­ lijke Zwem en Zonnebadinrichting a.d. Zuidelijken wandelweg’, 1932. Photo: Vereniging Vrienden van de Amsterdamse Binnenstad, Amsterdam.

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to hygiene, an issue that was high on it is worth looking at the political the city council’s agenda. It was not function of Roman baths. Illustrious until the nineteen-sixties that social emperors had these huge bathing com­ housing had modern bathrooms pro­­- plexes built to show off their power and Fig. 9 vi­ded by local authorities.19 The associ­ -­ status. The fact that we are looking at carel willink, Preliminary Study for a­tion of a swimming pool complex with an emperor and senators in Willink’s the New Swimming Roman baths may sound rather far- print and not philosophers, for example, and Sun Baths, 1932 fetched today, but that was certainly is revealed by an inscription he wrote or before. Pencil on not the case in the nineteen-thirties. on one of the drawn preliminary studies: paper, 335 x 267 mm. A bath house after a Roman example ‘TheOur senator at our new baths.’ Amsterdam, with a real apodyterium (changing These political leaders in a bath house Rijksmuseum, inv. no. room), tepidarium (warm room) and may even be a satirical reference to the rp-t-2004-204-16(r); gift of S.M.E. sudatorium (sweat room) had already heated debate about mixed bathing. In Willink-Quiël, been opened for the well-to-do in ancient Rome from the first century bc Amsterdam. Heiligeweg in Amsterdam in 1896.20 both sexes were allowed to use the Inscriptions, from Willink chose this thought-provoking facilities and the Amstel Bath complex l. to r. ‘Wijnkoop/ context with good reason: ‘You use was the first modern venue where, by sofocles/ Wibaut/ those images that are sub­merged in the way of a trial, men and women were Polak (liggend)/ collective memory,’ said present-day allowed to bathe together at least one Boekman/ de Vlugt/ 21 22 23 Ketelaar/ Miranda’. political cartoonist Tjeerd Royaards. day a week. On Sundays the men were Photo: © S.M.E. But who or what do those lofty expected to wear a costume that covered Willink-Quiël. gentle­men represent? To answer this, more than their swimming trunks did.24

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This situation dismayed Willem de of this Attic tragedian of the fourth Vlugt, mayor of Amsterdam at that time. century bc (see fig. 10, cf. figs. 11-12). Political historian Harm Kaal maintains The fact that the communist David that he ‘was an anti-revolutionary mayor Wijnkoop is portrayed in this way sug­ who came from a background in which gests that Willink was depicting the swimming – mixed swimming in par­ enterprise aimed at the working class as ticular – was problematic, and showing a play and those present as actors. How­ one’s body invited moral danger’.25 ever it is more likely that it was only a Fig. 10 This may explain why one figure in a visual and not an intrinsic reference. anonymous, preliminary study has turned his back The bearded Sophocles was obviously Sophocles, c. 330 bc on the other politicians. However ideally suited to depict the only man (Roman copy of another statue). De Vlugt was not bald, as Willink drew with facial hair. As he did for his paint­ Rome, Vatican, Museo this man, but had luxuriant hair. To ings, Willink drew on a carefully collec­ Gregoriano Profano. date the identity of this figure has not ted image archive of photographs – by Photo: © 2016 Scala, been established. In the final print the others and ones he took himself – print Florence. man looks at the public. books, news­paper cuttings and post­ The same preliminary study contains cards in creating his cartoons. Fig. 11 a textual clue that suggests a different Comparing the end result with the Detail of fig. 7 with David Wijnkoop. reading (fig. 9). The name Sophocles has preliminary studies more closely pro­ been written in the silhouette of the vides more and more insight into Fig. 12 figure on the extreme left. The pose and Willink’s considerations and his think­ Detail of fig. 9 with the clothes are indeed identical to a statue­ ing. In the printed version, for example, David Wijnkoop.

317 the rijksmuseum bulletin the Jewish sdap councillor Emmanuel the editors can allow. I can imagine Boekman, portrayed by Willink with his that it loses readers and can have characteristic moustache, serious look, adverse consequences for the paper to wild curls and hooked nose, sits on make a mayor look so ridi­cu­lous.’29 It the throne, whereas he is still standing may not even have been Willink who in the sketch. Willink had previously took it upon himself to swap people by assigned this prominent place to De placing some heads on other bodies, Vlugt (fig. 9). The mayor was known but a picture editor. for his love of ostentation and status- enhancing symbolism; he did not From Local to International: hesitate to present himself to the Borah’s Proposal public in full regalia including medals. In Borah’s Proposal, a print published Fig. 13 When he is seated, the extra folds in on 30 July 1932, Willink swapped the carel willink, Preliminary Study the ample belly that originally belonged local Amsterdam setting for an inter­ for Borah’s Proposal, 26 to De Vlugt are eye-catching. In the national context concerning the 1932 or before. final result, De Vlugt – now standing relation­­ship between Europe and Pencil on paper, and positioned between Wijnkoop and America (see figs. 13-15). Once again 335 x 267 mm. the unknown bald man – was able to the main figures, identified as ‘Borah’ Amsterdam, conceal his torso in a toga (see fig. 7). and ‘Hoover’, are dressed in clothes Rijksmuseum, inv. no. In the print both Boekman and the recognizable to everyone: a sailor’s rp-t-2004-204-10(r); gift of S.M.E. man behind him hold a scroll of the jumper and a captain’s uni­form. Willink-Quiël, law in their left hands, while their right William Borah was a prominent Amsterdam. are raised in a gesture of address; a Republican senator from Idaho and Photo: © S.M.E. sign of power in Roman iconography.27 Herbert Hoover, also a Republican, Willink-Quiël. All these aspects come together to suggest that he, not De Vlugt, would be the highest placed figure in the dis­ tinguished company. Why did these two people’s heads change position? Did the artist think it was too risky to expose an important man like the mayor in that way or was he deliberately depicting a power struggle? Historian Harm Kaal considers the latter unlikely: ‘The Boekman – De Vlugt relationship gives no reason to think that rivalry or conflict is being shown here, as De Vlugt was occasion­ally engaged in a struggle with more social-democratic aldermen. I can well imagine that Willink shied away from portraying De Vlugt naked; he probably considered it too presumptuous.’28 Perhaps toning it down had been an editorial decision. Political cartoonist Tjeerd Royaards says that this was and is common practice. ‘Nine times out of ten, a cartoonist gets his work back from the editors with an instruction to soften the message. This is usually because it is rather more critical and savage than

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was the thirty-first president of the ship’ – a division of power. There can, United States from 1929 to 1933. after all, only be one who sets the Borah, portrayed as a sailor, empties course. What is more, Hoover literally a sandbag with the words ‘War debts’ has ‘the reins in his hands’, another written on it. He has averted his gaze common expression. Willink expressed Fig. 14 from the viewer and his travelling this by portraying the supreme com­ carel willink, companion alike, but his expression man­der larger than his colleague. The Design Drawing for Borah’s Proposal, 1932. speaks volumes: dismay and dissatis­ cartoon suggests the stalemate in a Pencil on paper, faction. Interestingly, Willink showed political situation that gripped Europe 355 x 250 mm. Borah smiling in the preliminary at that time. ‘Zal ’t helpen?’ (Will it Gorssel, study (fig. 13). His negative emotions help?) reads the rhetorical and some­ Museum more. are caused by what is happening on what ironic question below the print. Photo: © S.M.E. the other side: the president alias the After the First World War, Europe Willink-Quiël. captain clutches a rope that leads literally and figuratively lay in ruins. Fig. 15 our gaze upwards to end in an easily The continent owed the United States carel willink, removed bung in the hot air balloon. an astronomical amount of money. Borah’s Proposal, Hoover’s face expresses obstinacy. Despite the wretched conditions in in De Groene Whereas emptying the bag makes the old continent, America was by no Amsterdammer, the balloon rise, the slightest tug on means inclined to reduce or reschedule 30 July 1932, p. 5. the rope would reverse this action and the debts; this was laid down in the Photo: National have dramatic consequences: a free fall Treaty of Lausanne (summer 1932). Library of the Netherlands, The (for both passengers, though). The In a radio broadcast a week before Hague. © S.M.E. image is the visual expression of a well- the publication of Willink’s print, the Willink-Quiël. known saying ‘two captains on one contrary Borah was the first and only

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American to argue in favour of a review. Illustrations < Fig. 16 In the Netherlands reference was made In 1932, the year Willink made the car­ carel willink, to Borah’s proposal in newspapers in­- toons discussed here, he also produced The Beguines of cluding­ the Schager Courant under the various illustrations for De Groene. Woldry, in De Groene Amsterdammer, 2 heading ‘What Senator Borah Wants: The first thing to strike one, as it is in April 1932, p. 21. 30 Debt Cancellation’. The senator his cartoons, is the consistent use of Photo: National maintained that ‘cancelling the war the single flowing line, without any Library of the debts’ would actually be in the interest colouring or hatching to create shadows Netherlands, The of the American people. Only a couple or contrasts between areas. Most of the Hague. © S.M.E. of weeks earlier, A.C. Josephus Jitta preliminary studies for them are in Willink-Quiël. – chief editor of De Groene Amster­ the Rijksmuseum’s Print Room, but dammer – had argued in the same vein the final designs are scat­tered. Placing in an open letter to President Hoover. them side by side in digital form enabled Cancellation would benefit the entire us to follow Willink’s train of thought. world economy. Even though none of Willink once illustrated Albert Borah’s colleagues supported his idea, Helman’s imaginative and racy story, a number of American journalists did. De Begijnen van Woldry (fig. 16). In the A New York Times leader at the begin­ print a some­what bashful young man ning of July contended that it made stands on the pavement holding his hat little sense to try to collect irrecov­- in front of his crutch. There are step erable­ debts.31 In England and France, gables and a clock tower in the back­ Borah’s message was also seen as ‘a ground. Head tilted and with a dismayed fact of very great significance’.32 In the expression, he looks at the viewer as conclusion of the article in the Schager if he is about to disclose something Courant we read the following striking that cannot stand the light of day. The metaphor, which may have inspired passage in question in Helman’s story Willink: ‘In general, Borah’s speech is makes it clear that this pose is justified. regarded as floating a trial balloon. It is On a languid summer’s day the main even thought that Borah is being used character visits the little town of Woldry as a spokesman for the government and out of boredom. It is not long before a that his speech had been a preparation nun invites him to look round the local < Fig. 17 for the major address President Hoover convent. Before he knows what is carel willink, will deliver on 11 August.’33 Willink’s happening she tells him about the most Portrait of the Painter contribution suggested that all out­ terrible events and crimes, in order to Charles Roelofsz comes had been taken into consider­ overcome her feelings of guilt about a (1897-1962), 1932. ation, but that the artist’s expectations single indiscretion. What she had done Oil on canvas, 119 x 76 cm. of Hoover were not high. remains shrouded in mystery, but in Amsterdam, And he was proved right; in his view of the nature of the other offences Stedelijk Museum, speech Hoover ultimately said nothing the reader suspects the worst: ‘… no. A 2163. about a cancellation of debts, nor did Beguine Margaretha three murders by Photo: © S.M.E. he respond to a proposal to lower the poison and four murders by slander; Willink-Quiël. tariffs on export products from Europe. Ignatia a theft of health, adultery six The fact that this did not go down well, times because of lust, countless acts and certainly not with the members of fornication …’. After a long recital of the paper Willink worked for, is the dumbfounded guest has to promise revealed by an opening article in De to keep his lips sealed, because the nun Groene immediately prior to the new is afraid that otherwise she will miss presidential elections. ‘Nothing more out on her annual bottle of liquor. can be expected of Hoover. There is Through a creaking little door in the no doubt that he will continue the garden she unceremoniously returns pernicious policy that has ended in the young man to the street in the failure in almost every respect.’34 gathering dusk. ‘I stood as if in a new

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world, reinvigorated,’ Helman has him say. ‘The shopping street lay unusually blank and open.’35 Although no exact preliminary study for this illustration has been found, another discovery was made; the illustration shows a remarkable number of similarities to the Portrait of Charles Roelofsz, which Willink painted in the same year (fig. 17). The composition is built up in the same way: in the foreground a man is portrayed full length to the right of centre and in the background we see a row of buildings, as in the illustration. Details like the division of the surface of the pavement edge, the footwear, the position of the feet and knees and the angle of the diagonal of the pave­ ment, are actually identical. The use of colour gives the painting a very dif­fer­- ent effect of depth and atmosphere from the illustration. Roelofsz’s mysterious gesture, which has never been explained, adds to the sensation. Nonetheless the likeness is so striking that it is not inconceivable that the same sketch served as the starting point for the painting and the illustra­tion (fig. 18).

Fig. 18 carel willink, Preliminary Study for the Portrait of Charles Roelofsz (1897-1962), 1932 or before. Pencil on paper, 185 x 263 mm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. rp-t-2004-210-15(r); gift of S.M.E. Willink-Quiël, Amsterdam. Photo: © S.M.E. Willink-Quiël.

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Willink regularly illustrated the stories combined passages from the story. < Fig. 19 of Jef Last (1898-1972), a socialist and In the hold a strapping fellow in a cap carel willink, communist writer, poet and journalist. plays an accordion. Beside him on the The Sound of Last wrote stories for De Groene about simple wooden bench sits a woman in an Accor­dion, in De Groene his travels in the Nether­lands, exam­ traditional Frisian dress with a basket Amsterdammer, ining the conditions, appearance and on her lap. Although simplicity dom­- 1 June 1932, pp. 16-17. idiosyncrasies of the local population i­nates, Willink devoted particular Photo: National of labourers, fisher­men, prostitutes atten­tion to a number of details, like Library of the and farmers. Although the stories do the shape of the cap brooches and Netherlands, The attest to social engage­ment, they did the Frisian peasant woman’s cap. The Hague. © S.M.E. not convey any explicitly socialist typical Frisian chain is present too, Willink-Quiël. messages. Willink made two or three although Last does not describe it. For illustrations for each story. this detail Willink may have used a book ‘Naar het land van koning Douwe’ on Dutch national costume that his (‘To the Land of King Douwe’) was widow said he had. Unfortunately it has published on 11 June 1932. It was a story not been found in his book collection. about a voyage to Friesland on the All Willink’s preliminary studies ‘Lemmer Boat’, which left Amsterdam prove to be extremely close to the final and sailed to Lemmer. By ‘King Douwe’ results (cf. figs. 19-21). In the illustration Last was referring to Douwe Kalma, a in ink there are some ‘pentimenti’ or Frisian poet he admired: ‘a blond son improvements in white gouache over of a farmer who once dreamed about the black lines (fig. 20). They show the resurrected kingdom of Aldgillis precisely what Willink changed in the with the boys from my community’.36 last stage, such as the position of the (Aldgillis was a fictional Frisian king beam on the far left and the musician’s from the Middle Ages.) Last believed right hand. In this last stage simplifi­ca­ that the voyage was a true experience tion was the main thing. The changes for anyone who wanted to find out had no effect on the iconography or < Fig. 20 carel willink, about the soul of the Frisian people content, as was the case in the cartoons, Final Design for – provided, at least, that they dared to and even stylistically there are no great The Sound of an travel ‘second class’. For ‘this is where differences. Accordion, 1932. you will hear Frisian spoken, in all its Ink and gouache different harmonious dialects, by the Lines of Inspiration: Ingres, on paper. children who play among the sand­ Picasso and Le Fauconnier Amsterdam, City Archives. banks, by the women with gold The white pentimenti in the ink Photo: © S.M.E. 37 brooches under their lace caps’. Last drawing make it likely that it was a Willink-Quiël. continues: ‘Friesland, with its own final design for line engravings. This language, its own culture, its own technique enables a printer to transfer jubilant songs … . The sound of an a drawing on to a transparent sheet and < Fig. 21 accordion rises up from second class. print it cheaply, easily and in quantity. carel willink, What are these Frisians singing? Only pure black comes across with the Preliminary Study for The Sound of “Waarom, waarom zijn de bananen transfer. The simple black line is thus an Accordion, krom?” I smile. The mail boat from the only means of expression the artist 1932 or before. Holland imports Hollandish culture has at his disposal. In other words, as Pencil on paper, from the land of King Douwe.’38 The well as a functional reason for omitting 335 x 267 mm. author did not seem to realize that this shading – to transmit his message as Amsterdam, well-known sentimental song was clearly as possible – Willink could Rijksmuseum, inv. no. originally Flemish. However this does also have had a technical one.39 The rp-t-2004-204-38(v); gift of S.M.E. not detract from the musical essence. changes made in gouache do not create Willink-Quiël, Willink transformed this atmospheric a problem; the white paint that stands Amsterdam. description into the print The Sound out against the off-white paper is Photo: © S.M.E. of an Accordion (fig. 19), in which he transparent after the transfer and Willink-Quiël.

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invisible in the end result. Lithography – the only other technique for large print runs – is a much more compli­cated and lengthier process and in the case of a colour lithograph, necessitates several printings. Nevertheless, the artist or illustrator always steers a middle course within the given constraints and possi­ bilities to achieve a satisfactory­ aesthetic solution, not solely governed by prac­tic­al­ity. In other words, as an artist Willink would have enjoyed the simple, distinct lines. He had used identical flowing lines in 1926 in a number of drawn nudes that are regarded as autonomous works. At that time Willink was studying with Henri Le Fauconnier in Paris.40 There are no shadows or planes; most lines are simply convincing outlines. And what is even more im­por­tant: the work is strongly figurative and naturalistic. Willink did not make the figures abstract, as he had done shortly before in Silver Wedding (1924). In his transition from abstrac­

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Fig. 22 tion to figura­tion he was invigorated carel willink, Willink’s Pen Strokes: by Picasso’s recent ‘return to order’,41 Seated Nude, 1926. Conclusion which had been influenced by Ingres Pencil on paper, In his cartoons and book illustrations and Cézanne. Inspired by Picasso’s 645 x 500 mm. Willink shows a previously unknown Amsterdam, change of course, Willink also decided side: where he portrayed his subjects Stedelijk Museum, ‘to throw the whole ragbag of con­ no. 1999.2.0162. in his oil paintings in minute detail 42 structivist elements over­board’. Photo: © Sylvia with peerlessly captured wrinkles, The significance of Willink’s Willink-Quiël. moles and proportions measured with announce­ment immediately becomes a compass, his drawing in his sketches clear when we compare one of his Fig. 23 and preliminary studies was absolutely nudes to Picasso’s work from the early carel willink, basic. Nevertheless, Willink succeeded Preliminary Study nineteen-twenties (fig. 22). There are in creating striking likenesses with both for Nude with Towel, even more similari­ties in a preliminary 1926 or before. means of expression. study for the painting Nude with Pencil on paper, Did the fact that Willink captured Towel of 1926 built up in lines (fig. 23). 335 x 267 mm. people’s most obvious characteristics Picasso used the same (painted) line Amsterdam, with simple lines make him a carica­ with powerful contours in Olga in a Rijksmuseum, inv. no. turist? In his theoretical treatise 100 Hat with Feather (fig. 24). However, rp-t-2004-203-1(r); jaar spotprent (1958), L.J. Jordaan, the gift of S.M.E. Willink’s contem­porary and great political cartoonist and senior art Willink-Quiël, example varied the thickness of the Amsterdam. editor of De Groene Amsterdammer, line far more strongly in order to Photo: © Sylvia wrote about the different forms of express the difference in haptic quality: Willink-Quiël. appropriate visual commentary on the soft feather and the light under­ political events. Jordaan called the por­ clothes are depicted by means of trayals of people like those by Willink narrower, inter­rupted brushstrokes. caricature portraits (‘portretcharges’) and deemed them appropriate for

324 carel willink in the spotlight: a painter’s political pen

baths? Implicit messages are more powerful when the viewers themselves are allowed to finish the story. This state of uncertainty is precisely what the majority of Willink’s canvases, like Bad Tidings convey (fig. 25). Here a threat­ening sky acts as a metaphor for the message in the letter, which will soon be read by a still unsuspecting passerby.­ While the artist makes the first move, the viewer gives the final push. In other respects, too, the 1932 draw­ ings have things in common with the paintings from that time. In both cases he started with reality, witness the copy of the statue of Sophocles, the true-to- life caricature portraits of well-known political figures and the architecture of the De Miranda Baths. The print The Beguines of Woldry even has an identical structure to the Portrait of Charles Roelofsz. On his excursions Willink stayed close to home. It is unclear why Willink only ven­tured into cartoons and socialist Fig. 24 illustrations in 1932. According to his small, local events: ‘The artist is sent pablo picasso, widow, Sylvia Willink-Quiël, her late there. He looks at the famous object, Olga in a Hat with husband made illustrations to earn notes with a keen eye the small, charac­ Feather, 1920. money when times were hard.43 Driven ter­istic peculiarities, exaggerates them Oil on canvas. by circumstances or not, Willink’s Private collection. a lot or a little … and there you have a messages illustrated by pen strokes caricature portrait.’ are still crystal clear. The clear pictorial language Willink used for his caricature portraits, car­ Fig. 25 Amsterdam, toons and illustrations was born in Paris carel willink, Stedelijk Museum, Bad Tidings, 1932. no. a 741. and influenced above all by Picasso. His Tempera on linen, Photo: © Sylvia own ingenious pictorial strategy did 61.5 x 92 cm. Willink-Quiël. the rest. Borah’s Proposal, for example, provides an accessible and instant image that even modern viewers understand; a ship can only be steered by one captain. Contemporary readers of De Groene found information about the context in which this cartoon should be ‘read’ in the media – radio, magazines and newspapers. Willink reinforced his message by using the cartoonist’s traditional method of the unfinished narrative. This means the artist asks questions rather than giving answers. Will the balloon fall or rise? What are these gentlemen doing at the swimming

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notes 1 Jurrie Poot, Carel Willink. Tekeningen en 17 Piet de Rooy, ‘Oorlog en Revolutie 1914-1925’, aquarellen, exh. cat Amsterdam (Stedelijk in Piet de Rooy (ed.), Geschiedenis van Museum) 1992, p. 3. Amsterdam. Tweestrijd in de hoofdstad, 2 Het Parool, 1 December 1973. Amsterdam 2007, p. 101. 3 Anonymous, ‘Willink-beeld onthuld onder 18 ‘Wil je bajen, wil je zwemmen, moet je Willink-lucht’, De Volkskrant, 4 March 2000, De Miranda stemmen.’ H. Aukes, ‘Het http://www.volkskrant.nl/beeldende-kunst/ bad van De Miranda’, Ons Amsterdam 7/8, willink-beeld-onthuld-onder-willink- August 2007. lucht~a555325/, consulted on 25 March 2016. 19 Ibid. 4 ‘In café Americain op het Leidseplein troffen 20 Van der Woud 2015 (note 10), pp. 130-31. Wilma en ik wekelijks aan onze vaste tafel 21 At the author’s request, as an expert on andere magisch-realistische schilders en modern and historical cartoons, Tjeerd enkele bekenden van het weekblad De Rooyaards looked at Willink’s drawings. Groene Amsterdammer, onder wie directeur 22 ‘Je maakt gebruik van die beelden die Henk [dit moet zijn Rients] Dijkstra, voor verzonken zijn in het collectieve beeld­ wiens blad ik illustraties maakte.’ Jouke geheugen.’ From an interview with Tjeerd Mulder, Willinks waarheid. En het dagboek Royaards, 8 February 2016, personal van Sylvia, Baarn 1983, p. 51 archives. 5 Hans Mulder, Inktspot. 100 jaar politieke spot­ 23 Garrett G. Fagan, Bathing in Public in the prent in Nederland, Amsterdam 1983, p. 6. Roman World, Michigan 2002, pp. 26-27. 6 Ibid. 24 Aukes 2007 (note 18). 7 Interpretation and observation by political 25 ‘… een antirevolutionaire burgemeester die uit historian Tjalling Bouma, 8 February 2016, een omgeving kwam waarin zwemmen – met personal archives. name gemengd zwemmen – problematisch 8 Hans Mulder, Een groote laars, een plompe was, en lichamelijkheid al snel zedelijk voet. Nederland en de Nazi’s in spotprent en gevaar in hield.’ Exchange of emails between karikatuur 1933-1945, Amsterdam 1985, p. 34. the author and Harm Kaal, 10 February 2016, 9 Jan Luiten van Zanden, De dans om de gouden personal archives. standaard. Economisch beleid in de depressie van 26 H. Kaal, ‘Vader Willem de Vlugt’, Ons Amster­ de jaren dertig, Amsterdam 1988 (inaugural dam 3, March 2005, p. 7. speech Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam). 27 J. Pageau, ‘Authority on the Right: Power on 10 Auke van der Woud, De nieuwe mens. De the Left’, Orthodox Arts Journal, 17 February culturele revolutie in Nederland rond 1900, 2013, http://www.orthodoxartsjournal.org/ Amsterdam 2015, pp. 130-31. authority-on-the-right-power-on-the-left/, 11 Harm Kaal, Het hoofd van de stad. Amsterdam consulted on 15 December 2015 en zijn burgemeester tijdens het interbellum, 28 ‘De verhouding Boekman – De Vlugt geeft Amsterdam 2008, p. 59. geen aanleiding om te veronderstellen dat 12 ‘Koch was zonder meer fout.’ Mulder 1983 hier een concurrentie of tweestrijd wordt (note 4), p. 59. verbeeld, want De Vlugt bond met meer 13 ‘… geen stuiver verdiende.’ Jouke Mulder and sociaaldemocratische wethouders af en toe Adriaan Venema, Kunsthandel in Nederland de strijd aan. Ik kan me wel voorstellen 1940-1945, Amsterdam 1986, p. 164. dat Willink ervoor is teruggedeinsd om 14 ‘… bezwaar heeft op dit oogenblik in het De Vlugt ontbloot af te beelden; dat achtte buitenland tentoon te stellen.’ Claartje hij wellicht toch te aanmatigend.’ Exchange Wesselink, Kunstenaars van de Kultuurkamer. of emails between the author and Harm Geschiedenis en herinnering, Amsterdam 2014 Kaal, 10 February 2016, personal archives. (diss. University of Amsterdam), p. 48. 29 ‘Negen van de tien keer krijgt een spotprenten­ 15 Carel Willink, ‘Het nieuwe zwem- en tekenaar zijn werk terug van de redactie met zonnebad’, De Groene Amsterdammer, een aanmerking om de bood­schap wat terug 13 August 1932, p. 5. te schroeven. Die is meestal wat kritischer 16 H. Aukes, ‘Van ijskoud Vechtwater naar en feller dan de redactie kan toestaan. Ik kan subtropische golven’, Ons Amsterdam, me voorstellen dat het lezers kost en nadelige 12 June 2014, http://www.zuidelijkewandel gevolgen kan hebben voor het blad om een weg.nl/index.php/architectuur/568-recreatie- burgemeester zo potsierlijk neer te zetten.’ het-bad-van-de-miranda, consulted on From an interview with Tjeerd Royaards, 25 March 2016. 8 February 2016, personal archives.

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30 ‘Wat senator Borah wil: schuldschrapping.’ Schager Courant, 26 July 1932, no. 9112. 31 See IJmuider Courant, 12 July 1932, http://nha. courant.nu/issue/IJC/1932-07-12/edition/0/ page/5, consulted on 31 January 2016. 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 34 ‘Van Hoover valt niets meer te verwachten. Het staat vast, dat hij zou doorgaan met de verderfelijke politiek die in vrijwel alle opzichten op een mislukking is uitgeloopen.’ Anonymous, ‘De nieuwe president van de Vereenigde Staten’, De Groene Amsterdam­ mer, 12 November 1932, p. 1. 35 ‘… begijn Margaretha driemaal moord door gif en viermaal moord door laster; van Ignatia een diefstal van gezondheid, zesmaal echtbreuk van begeerte, hoererij ontelbaar …’. ‘Ik stond als in een nieuwe wereld, her­ ademend’, ‘Zeldzaam blank en open lag de winkelstraat’, Albert Helman ‘De Begijnen van Woldry’, De Groene Amsterdammer, 2 April 1932, p. 21. 36 ‘… een blonden boerenzoon die eens met de jongeren van zijn mienskip [gemeenschap] droomde over het herleefde koninkrijk van Aldgillis …’. De Groene Amsterdammer, 11 June 1932, pp. 16-17. 37 ‘… daar zult gij het Friesch hooren, in al zijn verschillende swietludiche dialekten, van de kinderen die tusschen de banken spelen, van de vrouwen met gouden ijzers onder het kanten kapje …’. J. Last, ‘Naar het land van koning Douwe’, De Groene Amsterdammer, 11 June 1932, pp. 16-17. 38 Ibid., p. 17. 39 Fons van der Linden, De grafische technieken, De Bilt 1979, pp. 145-49. 40 H.L.C. Jaffé, Willink, Bloemendaal 2000, p. 30. 41 Elizabeth Cowling, Picasso: Challenging the Past, London 2009, pp. 70-71. 42 ‘de hele santekraam van constructivisti­- sche elementen overboord te gooien’; A.C. Willink, De schilderkunst in een kritiek stadium, Amsterdam 1951, p. 30. 43 Note from Sylvia Willink-Quiël to the author on 10 February 2016.

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