JACOB JONGERT (1883-1942) VAN NELLE'S TABAK. 1920. 38 3/4x25 1/2 inches, 94 1/2x64 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.
![JACOB JONGERT (1883-1942). VAN NELLES TABAK. 1920. 38x25 inches, 94x64 cm. [Immig & Zoon, Rotterdam.]](https://catalogue.swanngalleries.com/full//682\731682.jpg)
