27 / 254
JACOB JONGERT (1883-1942)
23
●
VAN NELLE’S TABAK. 1920.
38
3
/
4
x25
1
/
2
inches, 94
1
/
2
x64
3
/
4
cm. [Immig & Zoon, Rotterdam.]
Condition B+: minor time-staining at edges; creases in margins and image. Mounted on Japan.
Jongert studied with (and then professionally assisted) Richard Roland-Holst, and also had his own
career as a painter and a professor of graphic arts. He was also the Director of Advertising for Van
Nelle’s Tobacco from 1923-1940. This early commission from Van Nelle’s is a classic Dutch image in
which Roland-Holst’s influence can clearly be seen in the symmetrical and vertical composition.
However, the coloring, the typography and the drawing itself are freely and marvelously accomplished
by Jongert in his personal artistic manner. It is an exceptionally decorative approach to tobacco
advertising, in which abstract flowers appear against a geometric patchwork-quilt background, and
smoke intertwines with the title. While the image exhibits traces of both the Continental and Dutch
Art Nouveau style, it clearly takes a bolder, more contemporary approach to design. Modern Dutch 51.
[7,000/10,000]