Oct 02, 2003 - Sale 1978

Sale 1978 - Lot 72

Price Realized: $ 2,990
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
ADRIANN VAN'T HOFF HOLLAND AMERICA LINE / STATENDAM. 1928.
433/4x32 inches. Lankhout, The Hague.
Condition B+: restoration and overpainting in margins; repaired tear through left margin into image.
A strong eye-catching image for the Statendam's (Holland America's flagship) maiden voyage. 1928 was the same year that Cassandre designed his own poster for the Statendam (see lot 6), and like other young Dutch graphic designers (Heinz Molenaar and Kees van der Laan, for example) Van't Hoff was clearly familiar with and an admirer of Cassandre's work. But in fact, Van't Hoff's two important posters for ship companies (the other one is for Van Nievelt, Goudriann & Co, also designed in 1928) show a strong personal style which is a departure from Cassandre's synthetic, geometric style. Van't Hoff fills his images with interacting elements. Here, surrounded by the powerful visual trappings of ship-building technology, such as chains and cranes, and the graceful imagery of stylized birds and water, the Statendam appears as the solid product of the combination of function and form. This is the English version.