Scarce Lithographs Exploring Lesbian Lovemaking By the Dutch Portraitist Jan Asselbergs

When Jan Asselbergs finally chose to become an artist, he had already worked many jobs. He developed into a gifted portrait painter, with an elegant style in which figurative and abstract elements intermingle. 

Nude Figures

Asselbergs was born in 1937 in what was then the Dutch East Indies and experienced the horrors of the Japanese camps. He studied at the predecessor of the Academy for Visual Education and the National Higher Institute of Fine Arts in Antwerp. In 1961 he settled in Tilburg and became a drawing teacher at the Pauluslyceum. His oeuvre consists of drawings, watercolors, engravings, lithographs and oil paintings, mainly landscapes, still lifes, nude figures and portraits.

Fig.1. Chalk drawing Romantic Realism (1988)

Queen of the Netherlands

As a portraitist, Asselbergs immortalized Queen of the Netherlands, Beatrix and former prime minister of the Netherlands Ruud Lubbers, among others. He considered himself a true craftsman and an advocate of the recovery of the old craft. He did not use a camera when portraying his subjects. "A portrait of a photo is a picture of a picture", he explained in an earlier interview. In addition to being a painter, he was also a jazz pianist, singer and composer. Together with Aat Veldhoen, he is best known for Rotaprint, a certain type of chalk on aluminum plate (Fig.1). In 2015 Asselbergs died of pneumonia.

Sapphic Lovemaking

The following litho's depicting sapphic lovemaking were issued during the 1970s. The flower references are striking, either as a motif on the fabrics or as a physical object forming a whole with the genitals (Fig.8).

Fig.2.

Fig.3. (1976)

Fig.4.

Fig.5. (1971)

Fig.6.

Fig.7. (1971)

Fig.8. (1971)

In Premium you can find the complete set of "sapphic" lithographs and some additional erotic paintings and drawings by Asselbergs.

Click HERE for the sapphic expressionism in the paintings of Cameron Cox

Sources: pinterest.com, issuu.com,