Doeve, Eppo - 1 Original strip - Het Mannetje Bagatel - 1946

Eppo Doeve (born in 1907) was a famous Indonesian illustrator and cartoonist who spent his youth under Dutch colonial administration in his homeland, but largely lived in the Netherlands during his adult life. He was a political cartoonist and illustrated many book covers, advertisements, and Dutch banknotes. Doeve also developed a renowned reputation as a painter.

He created various illustrations for the Wageningen Student Corps magazine. Unfortunately, in 1929, the stock market crash on Wall Street occurred, leading to a severe global economic crisis. The Great Depression also caused the collapse of the Indonesian tea market, which completely changed Doeve's career path. Given his love for the Netherlands, he wanted to stay there and therefore chose a career in graphic design. He had already done some work for the Amsterdam advertising agency De la Mar and continued to illustrate advertisements for them.

In 1933, Doeve became a political cartoonist for the magazine De Groene Amsterdammer. After three years, he moved as a freelancer to De Haagsche Post. His illustrations also appeared in De Radiobode, the official magazine of the Dutch radio broadcaster AVRO. One of his colleagues there was Eelco ten Harmsen van der Beek, from whom he learned many valuable skills. Doeve illustrated, alternating with Henk Gijsbers and Henk Albers, the 'Paul van Vlaanderen' series. His graphic work also appeared in Het Handelsblad and De Telegraaf, and after World War II, continued in Vrij Nederland. His longest collaboration was with Elseviers Weekblad (later Elsevier), for which he created cartoons from 1946 until his death in 1983.

Doeve designed murals, stage sets, costumes, postage stamps, portraits, paintings, and sculptures. He created beautiful advertising posters for various companies. Two of the most famous were the waiter carrying a tray with Heineken beer and a drawing with penguins for the Amsterdam zoo Artis. Doeve's drawings decorated the covers of many Prisma pocket novels. Yet, most Dutch people in the 1950s knew him as the designer of a new series of banknotes. Each banknote featured the head of a famous historical figure from Dutch history, such as Hugo De Groot (10 guilders), Herman Boerhaave (20 guilders), Christiaan Huygens (25 guilders), Desiderius Erasmus (100 guilders), and Rembrandt van Rijn (1000 guilders). Later in his life, Doeve even designed parodies of these banknotes with the heads of football champion Johan Cruyff or Zwarte Piet. Doeve was an extraordinary graphic talent, despite never having attended art school. He was ambidextrous and could even draw upside down if needed. Doeve received so many commissions that he never had to worry about his income. The only downside was that he mostly worked for others rather than creating his own art.


As a comic artist, he created two text strips ('Het Mannetje Bagatel', 1946, and 'Kleine Isar, de Vierde Koning', 1962), based on the writings of novelist Bertus Aafjes. The versatile artist received much appreciation from colleagues, although he never received any formal academic art training.
In 1946, their fairy tale comic strip 'Het Mannetje Bagatel' appeared in De Volkskrant. It ran from June 4 to October 7, 1946 (from September 17 under the title 'Bagatel's Kinder-cabaret').

Quite unusual for a self-taught person, he also received several awards for his work. In 1955, he received the National Outdoor Advertising Award, and in 1973, he was knighted in the Order of Orange-Nassau.

Eppo Doeve passed away on June 11, 1981, at the age of 73. He was highly regarded among fellow artists and had a strong influence on people such as Marten Toonder, Rudy van Giffen, Jan Kruis, Martin Lodewijk, Peter van Straaten, and Fiep Westendorp. For those interested in his life and career, the book 'In Memory of Eppo Doeve' (1907-1981) by Jop Euwijk is warmly recommended.

This lot contains an original daily strip from Het mannetje Bagatel, one of the only two comic strip stories created by Doeve. The strip is beautifully drawn in the recognizable style that Eppo Doeve so typified. Original comic drawings by Eppo Doeve are extremely rare.

See also the photos that form part of the description and provide a good picture of what is offered.

This small masterpiece is well packaged and shipped by registered parcel post.